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Book . Myf 



PRESENTED BY 




VERRANUS MORSE, M. D. 
1870. 



AN 

ANALYTICAL SKETCH 

OF THE 

Young Men's Christian Association 
in North America 

from 1 85 I to 1876, together with Contemporary 

Essays; and a Statistical Statement of the 

Results of Its Work from 

1876 to 1901 



By VERRANUS MORSE, M. D. 



New York 

The International Committee of Young Men's Christian Associations 

3 West Twenty-Ninth Street 

1901 



-P 



•#>* 



Dedicated 

to THE 

Jubilee Convention 

of THE 

Young Men's Christian Associations 

in 

North America, 

June, 1901 



Gin 
Publisiar 



• « 



5-1-P1000-5-01 



V 



CONTENTS 



PAGE 

Sketch of the Author 5 

Outlook for the Twentieth Century 9 

Analytical Sketch of Association Movement, 1851-75 15 

Pamphlet Essays: 

Preface to Essays 43 

The Work of the Associations 45 

Improvement of the Social Condition of Young 

Men 51 

The Work of the Association in Small Towns . . 62 

Qualifications for Active Membership 70 

Self-Elevation 74 

Articles Published in The Christian at Work 81 

Articles Published in The Association Monthly 109 

Progress of the Movement since 1875 139 

Comparative Statistical Table 148 

Report of the International Committee, 1899 149 



SKETCH OF THE AUTHOR 



BY CEPHAS BRAINERD 



Verranus Morse, M. D., the author of the fol- 
lowing essays and papers, was born at Spring- 
field, N. H., November 20, 1818, and was grad- 
uated from Dartmouth College in 1845, receiving 
the degree of A. B. He studied medicine at the 
New York University, receiving the degree of 
M. D. in 1849, an d in that year he located in 
New York City. Subsequently, he united with 
the Market Street Church, then under the pastor- 
ate of the Rev. Theodore L. Cuyler, D. D., and 
about the same time, became a life member of the 
Young Men's Christian Association of New York 
City. He became a member of its board of 
directors in i860, and in 1862, still continuing as 
a member of the board, he was elected treasurer, 
holding that office for four years. 

He was a delegate from that association to the 
Boston, Philadelphia, Albany and Montreal 
international conventions, and was a member of 
the International Committee from 1869 to 1875. 
In all these positions he was active, attentive, 



and exceedingly useful. It hardly need be said 
that this period of official activity embraced prac- 
tically the most trying time in the history of the 
associations on this continent. Indeed when 
Dr. Morse became the treasurer of the New 
York association its fortunes were at the lowest 
ebb. It was in debt, it was not popular, its 
membership had diminished, and it was proposed 
by some of the friends of the association to 
abandon the effort. Dr. Morse was convinced 
of the value of the institution, insisted strongly 
upon its continuance, and offered the earliest 
pledge received, giving what he deemed his 
proper proportion for the payment of the out- 
standing debts. The debts were paid, and the 
association of New York City started at that time 
upon its unexampled career of prosperity and 
usefulness. 

The conditions under which the associations 
were then prosecuting their work and the opin- 
ions in the religious communities respecting 
them were such that it became necessary for the 
friends of the movement to study its conditions 
and possibilities attentively, reasonably and phil- 
osophically, in order to argue the cause of Christ 
among young men not only with prudence, but 
also with ability and thoughtfulness. 

It is not too much to say that Dr. Morse ren- 
dered a large and most liberal service in this 
regard, and that his written contributions to the 
development of the association idea exceed in 



frequency and value those of any other person 
who had in those early days a part in the work 
No one can fully understand the conditions which 
then prevailed and the necessities which were 
upon the friends of the association in those days 
without a careful study of Dr. Morse's valuable 
papers, and for this study these which he has 
preserved and which are now printed are admir- 
ably adapted. The friends of these institutions 
w T ho wish a real knowledge of their history will 
surely appreciate the papers as a substantial con- 
tribution to the history of the associations. And 
so Dr. Morse, loved dearly as a friend and 
instructor by his associates, will still be an 
important contributor to the advancement of a 
now victorious cause, a cause to which he gave 
his best thought and prodigally of his time in the 
earlier days of struggle and trial. 



OUTLOOK AT THE BEGINNING 

OF THE TWENTIETH 

CENTURY 



THE YOUNG MEN'S CHRISTIAN ASSO- 
CIATION, THE SKIRMISH LINE OF 
THE CHURCH 

Standing on the threshold of the twentieth 
century and viewing the many young people's 
Christian societies doing earnest Christian work 
with the hearty approval of their churches, we 
are made aware that the church has taken a long 
step forward since the organization of the 
Young Men's Christian Association fifty years 
ago. 

The cause of the long delay of this advance 
movement until the middle of the nineteenth 
century may be found enfolded in the educa- 
tional history of previous centuries. The method 
of teaching which had long prevailed failed to ed- 
ucate. In the schools of all grades, from the pri- 
mary to the academy and the college, and in the 
Sunday schools through all of their departments, 
text books were used containing questions and 
answers ; the pupils committed these to memory 



and while the teachers read to them the ques- 
tions they recited the answers ; and though these 
answers might enshroud facts or embalm rules, 
these facts and rules were ultimate and not ger- 
minal. They were powerless to teach anything 
or awaken faculties that would enable pupils to 
devise anything in advance of what was already 
known or which slow, creeping experience could 
reach. 

But in the latter decades of the first half of the 
nineteenth century the schools sloughed off the 
methods of teaching which they inherited, 
slightly improved from past ages, and adopted 
a method designed to develop the intellectual 
faculties. Independent thinking was cultivated 
and the reasoning powers were trained and 
strengthened. The old method made a store- 
house of the memory, the new makes a manufac- 
turing establishment of the intellectual powers. 
By the one a man may starve with his barn full 
of corn, while by the other he will have bread 
enough and to spare. 

Christian young men, educated both in the 
secular and the Sunday schools by the new 
method, were prepared to do successful Chris- 
tian work while still young ; and by such men 
and for such work the Young Men's Christian 
Association was organized in America in 1851. 
But members of the church who had been taught 
by the old method and who remembered that 
they had ventured to attempt to do Christian 



10 



work only after long experience in Christian 
living, and who had been accustomed to hear 
the voices of the old men only in the prayer 
meetings of the church, feared that these young 
men were urged on by youthful presumption 
and believed that their zeal should be held in 
check by the church until overtaken by a larger 
measure of Christian knowledge and experience. 

When D. L. Moody first began to speak in the 
prayer meetings of the church of which he was 
a member he was assured by an official member 
of the church that he would serve God better by 
keeping still. But such discouraging fears, be- 
liefs and assurances have ceased to be fashioned 
into words and dropped in the pathway between 
young Christians and Christian work. They 
are no longer expected to preach like Paul or 
speak as to angels but as young Christians to 
their young companions. 

After a few years of general Christian work in 
the church and in the city mission fields the 
association became convinced by a closer study 
of its constitution and the example of the Lon- 
don association that, in addition to the work of 
its active members in the churches of which they 
were members, it was organized to do a special 
church work for young men. It saw that while 
young men in the homes of their parents sur- 
rounded with Christian influences could be 
reached by the church with its usual methods, 
clerks and young men in business establishments 



ii 



in large cities, living in boarding houses far from 
home and its guardian care, could seldom be 
reached by the church in its ordinary services, 
but if at all only by its members as individuals. 
And active members of the association who 
are fellow clerks or fellow boarders with these 
young men and who meet them individually day 
by day are able by kind Christian words and by' 
their Christian walk and conversation, and by the 
hospitality of the association rooms, to per- 
suade them to accept the gospel offer of salva- 
tion, and thus come within the spiritual influ- 
ence and membership of the church. This is 
the special work which the association has been 
successfully doing for the last fifty years and 
today the church is convinced of the value of the 
association as its skirmish line in situations and 
conditions which it is unable to reach with its 
heavy battalions. 

And Christian young people, young men, 
young women and the juniors, influenced and 
encouraged by the example and success of the 
Young Men's Christian Association, have organ- 
ized Christian societies of various names in their 
respective churches, and in obedience to the 
injunction, "Go work today," they are doing 
earnest and efficient work among their young 
companions and others within their reach. 

And Christian children, instead of waiting for 
the wisdom of age, take the joyful message, 
"Suffer little children to come unto me," to their 



12 



playmates, and capture their hearts with the lov- 
ing words of the Master and bear them away to 
the arms of Jesus. 

And the results of this work of young Chris- 
tians are shown by the increasing number of 
young people and children that are received into 
the membership of the churches year after year. 
Behold what God hath wrought in this our day ! 



13 



ANALYTICAL SKETCH 



Young Men's Christian Associations were or- 
ganized in Montreal and Boston in 185 1 and in 
many other cities in the United States and British 
Provinces in the next few years. Their pri- 
mary purpose was the spiritual improvement of 
young men, while intellectual, social and physi- 
cal improvement was secondary to this and in 
some measure auxiliary to it. 

The church and the association were separate 
organizations, each having its own constitution, 
by-laws and officers, and their relations were not 
readily adjusted on a working basis. 

For many generations pastors in country towns 
had stood in their pulpits and had said "Come," 
and multitudes of young men had come to the 
sanctuary with fathers and mothers and had ac- 
cepted the offers of eternal life. But the grow- 
ing cities with their business facilities and ready 
employment drew young men away from their 
homes in the country and from foreign countries ; 
and this change in their condition and surround- 
ings called for additional methods of Christian 
work to reach them. It was in obedience to this 
call that the Young Men's Christian Association 

15 



came into existence, though it came not to dis- 
place the wise master builders of the church but 
to be their helper. It was the development of a 
latent force which the church had long suffered 
to be dormant in its membership. 

But advance movements of the church are sel- 
dom made by the whole of its membership at the 
same time ; a few go forward in the beginning as 
if moved by inspiration, while others follow 
gradually as they are convinced or persuaded, 
either by line upon line and precept upon precept 
or by the logic of events. 

So the Young Men's Christian Association was 
not organized with the simultaneous approval of 
the whole church. Some of its members be- 
lieved that by means of the association the 
church would be able to reach certain classes 
of young men in great cities which it could 
not reach by its usual methods; others 
failed to see anything in the social rela- 
tions of young men, or in the character and 
habits of society in cities, that called for methods 
of church work different from those that had 
long been used with success in the country. But 
even if some change was needed, it was not seen 
why it should be made by associations of young 
men under the leadership of officers of their own 
selection and by methods of their own devising 
with no direct supervision of the church. Some 
believed that association interests would draw 
young men away from their church duties and 

16 



thus cripple the church and also deprive them of 
its watchful care, while others, looking upon 
Young Men's Christian Associations as outside 
bodies neither officially organized nor controlled 
by the church, feared that such associations 
clothed with unguided responsibility might be 
led to trespass upon the prerogatives of the 
church, or at least that the church might be 
compromised by their indiscretion. For though 
the association was recognized as a Christian 
association and its active membership was com- 
posed of church members and the church had no 
lack of confidence in the Christian character of 
the members of the association, still it feared 
that their Christian experience was too immature 
to justify their attempt to do Christian work un- 
guided by the hand of the church. Yet there 
were fields in which the associations by earnest, 
but independent Christian work, not as competi- 
tors of the church but as companies of its own 
workmen using instruments fitted for the work 
the Master sent them to do, outreached the 
church's guiding hand and excited the jealousy 
of Christians whose experience bore the stamp 
of years. 

It was two decades before the whole church 
escaped from the bondage of these fears which 
virtually debarred the associations from fully 
embodying in their work the primary purpose 
for which they were organized, since they had no 
thought of disloyalty to the church and were 

17 



unwilling to do anything that could excite its 
fears.* But an advance movement of the church 
is liable to be embarrassed not only by members 
who oppose it or stand aloof from it but by those 
who have plans of their own and expect it to 
identify itself with their plans. 

The young men who organized the association 
in America, having little or no practical experi- 
ence in association work, formulated a constitu- 
tion based upon that of the London association 
and undertook to develop their work from their 
constitution ; but different interpretations of it, 
or different beliefs or purposes regardless of it, 
brought two parties into the association. One 
party believed that it was the purpose of the as- 
sociation to work for the spiritual improvement 
of young men who, especially in large cities, were 
not reached readily by the church with its cus- 
tomary methods. The other party was in the 
membership of the association because it be- 
lieved that the purpose of the association was to 
teach the young men of the church to do more 
Christian work than the church was teaching 
them to do, but they believed that the work 



*A leading pastor of this city (New York) said: "When the 
Young Men's Christian Associations began their work the 
churches were inclined to look upon them in much the same way 
that passengers, during the days of the stage coach, were wont to 
regard some mysterious stranger, who on a rainy cheerless night, 
hailed the lumbering coach from the wayside and insisted on 
pushing himself into the already crowded vehicle. Nor even now 
have all traces of this suspicion and annoyance disappeared from 
the minds of many brethren in our church." — You?ig Men's Chris- 
tian Association Monthly, page 58, 1870. 

18 



should be general Christian work and that it 
should be done by the ordinary church methods. 
Thus the church work of the members of the 
association was mistaken for their association 
work and the spiritual growth which rewards 
young men by whom church work is done was 
mistaken for the conversion and spiritual im- 
provement of young men. Though this was a 
progressive party it was more than fifteen years 
before it overtook the constitution of the asso- 
ciation, caught sight of its true purpose, and 
laid hold of its specific work, while by failing 
to see how the association with its simple 
methods could reach its high ideals, and by striv- 
ing to substitute purposes within the scope of its 
own vision for the grand purposes of the asso- 
ciation, it hindered its work and delayed its pro- 
gress. Thus the church, by a fraction of its 
membership outside of the association and 
another fraction within it, stunted the young life 
of the association, the former by the conservatism 
of fear and the latter by the presumption of ig- 
norance. 

But the association was not destined so to end, 
for while Mr. George Williams was the in- 
spired contractor who laid the foundation of the 
parent association, God Himself was the architect 
and failure was no part of His plan. 

Though the whole active membership of the 
association was within the church and though 
many eminent pastors and church members were 

19 



within the association, still both the church and 
the association had much to learn before they 
could see eye to eye and work hand to hand and 
accomplish that which they were set apart to do. 

The association needed to learn that its pri- 
mary work was the personal work of its active 
members with young men individually for their 
salvation ; and the church needed to learn that 
the Young Men's Christian Association was a 
band of loyal church members and that the asso- 
ciation's primary purpose was the conversion of 
young men and the promotion of their growth in 
grace and in Bible knowledge. The church 
needed to learn to encourage its members who 
had a love and an aptitude for some special 
Christian work, to unite and make a specialty of 
such work, since congenial associates, love of 
their work and the skill derived from experience 
would greatly increase their efficiency; and as 
the education of both church and association 
needed to be practical, God gave them experience 
for a school master in order that work and educa- 
tion might go forward together. 

But as yet a large proportion of the church 
membership believed that if the associations were 
needed at all, they were needed to do general 
church work rather than any special work of 
their own selection. Many members of the as- 
sociation believed that such work was proper 
association work and some would willingly do 
such work who could not be induced to do per- 



20 



sonal work individually, for a young Christian 
needs more seK denial and more of the spirit 
of the Master to conduct a prayer meeting with 
an irreligious young man in his own room than a 
whole devotional committee does to conduct a 
general prayer meeting in a religious community. 

So the associations undertook to vindicate their 
right to live and their willingness and ability to 
do Christian work by organizing mission Sunday 
schools, by conducting preaching services on 
street corners and prayer meetings in neglected 
neighborhoods, and by visiting prisons, peni- 
tentiaries, hospitals, almshouses and homes for 
the aged, for Bible reading and religious conver- 
sation with their inmates. 

Although this was not the work they were 
called to do; yet it was their primary school. 
They were teaching their whole membership to 
do Christian work by beginning with something 
which all w T ere willing to do; and useful work 
was done and valuable experience was gained 
though in other fields than their own. 

The church, too, was taught to let them work, 
since what they were doing was general church 
work, and they never claimed such work as their 
own province, but took it up and laid it down 
with equal facility, and the church contented it- 
self with commending them when they did well 
and snubbing them when they seemed to it to 
be meddlesome. The associations meanwhile 
were working thus like day laborers whenever 



21 



and wherever they could find employment, doing 
one thing in one place and something else in 
another and not knowing what they might do 
next. 

William Chauncy Langdon, of Washington, 
devised a plan for uniting them in a confederation 
for the purpose of securing more intimate rela- 
tions between them and a closer correspondence 
in their practice with the theory of their consti- 
tution. In the way of such union three widely 
differing obstacles were found : — 

First — the difficulty of adjusting a satisfac- 
tory basis of representation, a basis which would 
subject neither the smaller associations to the 
control of the larger, nor the few large ones to 
the more numerous small ones. 

Second — the opposition of associations whose 
members, looking at their work from the 
church point of view, believed that it was any 
Christian effort which seemed to be needed in 
their own towns or cities, and thought that a 
confederation with its conventions and commit- 
tees would have a tendency to withdraw the as- 
sociations from such local work and from the 
influence of their home churches to special work 
for young men under the guidance of a central 
organization. 

Third — the slavery question. But Mr. Lang- 
don persevered in spite of these obstacles and 
after nearly two years of persistent effort a con- 



22 



vention of thirty-seven delegates from nineteen 
associations met in Buffalo, June 7, 1854. But so 
slightly were the minds of these delegates im- 
pressed with the importance of union, that the 
whole scheme was rejected the first day of the 
convention. The next day, however, this decis- 
ion was reversed and a confederation, a central 
committee, and an annual convention were pro- 
vided for when this action should be endorsed 
by twenty-two associations. The approval of 
the required number was secured and the second 
annual convention met in Cincinnati, September 
19, 1855. 

Such was the origin of the annual conven- 
tions which have since proved themselves a 
guiding and propelling power of no small force 
in association work at home and abroad. 

The Buffalo convention eluded the first and 
second obstacles to union by providing that 
neither the convention nor any of its agencies 
should have any authority to commit any asso- 
ciation to any proposed plan of action until ap- 
proved by said association. Armed with a veto 
power like that the smallest or the weakest asso- 
ciation was safe from molestation by any other 
association however strong, or any combination 
of associations however numerous. The conven- 
tion also commended the general Christian work 
which the associations were already doing. 

But the third obstacle perplexed the first con- 
vention and every subsequent one until it was 

23 



struck down with the blood-stained battle-ax of 
civil war. 

The aspects of the slavery question as they 
were viewed by different men at that time were 
manifold and diverse. The slaveholder looked 
upon slavery as an institution sanctioned by the 
Bible and guaranteed by the state. His whole 
manner of life was adjusted to it and his char- 
acter and habits were molded by it. The slave 
was his working capital and the source of his 
income and he was not prepared to submit tamely 
to any interference with what he believed to be 
his vested rights, interference that would destroy 
or derange property values or turn the current 
of his life into untried channels. And there were 
merchants, manufacturers and others who be- 
lieved that the views of the slaveholder were 
wrong, yet coveted the patronage made possible 
and profitable by slavery and were unwilling that 
anything should be done to wound the slave- 
holder's feelings or jeopardize his income. 
Many, however, believed that slavery was a 
curse, both to the enslaved and to the nation, and 
that immediate and persistent efforts should be 
made to abolish it, while others, having no 
strong convictions on the subject, were ready to 
postpone the settlement of the problem. Views 
and beliefs so discordant in themselves were 
still further ensnarled by political complications. 
Pro-slavery, anti-slavery, free soil, republican, 
democratic, and other parties wrangled together 
over the slavery question for political supremacy. 

24 



These are specimens of some of the aspects of 
this question as they were seen in the days when 
God was hurrying slavery to its doom, and all 
of these fears, beliefs and inharmonious interests 
were represented in the associations. On the 
slavery question in the years previous to the war 
men were emphatic in their own beliefs and sen- 
sitive to the beliefs of others — a mood not easily 
controlled or even guided by reason. There 
were associations that refused to enter into any 
confederation unless their beliefs on the slavery 
question could be placed on its records, thus 
showing that in associating with others of dif- 
ferent beliefs they in no way compromised their 
own. Such recording of sentiment was mani- 
festly impossible, for no resolution or statement 
could be framed that would satisfy one associa- 
tion without exciting the indignation of some 
other. Even individual associations could not 
place resolutions touching slavery on their own 
records without hearing themselves called polit- 
ical clubs and seeing withdrawals from their 
membership and a shrinkage of income. 

A confederation was made possible only on 
the unformulated understanding that all refer- 
ence to slavery should be avoided, both in the 
articles of confederation and in the meetings of 
the conventions. But this was no easy task, for 
there were men who believed that it was their 
privilege, if not their duty, to bear witness 
against slavery whenever they stood before an 

25 



audience and there were others equally ready 
to be heard in its defence. And it required men 
quick to perceive and swift to act to keep these 
men otherwise occupied during the sessions of 
the conventions. All honor is due to the men 
who conducted these ante helium conventions so 
wisely that when the war was over the associa- 
tions from the North and the South, the East 
and the West, from the states and provinces met 
together as lovingly and sung their parting 
hymn, 

"Blest be the tie that binds 
Our hearts in Christian love," 

as sincerely as though the slaveholder and the 
abolitionist had fought side by side instead of 
face to face. 

In the superheated discussions of the slavery 
problem before it was solved by the war, the 
church was often blamed for inaction. It was 
believed by some that with its numerical strength, 
its unity of purpose and its moral power, it 
ought to be able to secure the adjustment of 
such questions, and that it might do so were it 
not demoralized and disabled by denominational 
differences. Many lost confidence in the church. 
Even old men who had long served it as office 
bearers and young men in the theological sem- 
inaries preparing to preach the gospel, "kicked off 
their denominational shackles," as they somewhat 
spitefully declared, and anxiously watched and 
waited for an undenominational church, free 

26 



from rivalries and jealousies. As the associa- 
tions were undenominational within evangelical 
limits and were engaged in Christian work of all 
kinds and among all classes, and as the associa- 
tions from all parts of the country met together 
in council and worked in harmony, association 
men whose knowledge of the special purpose and 
work of the association was too scant to ballast 
their zeal were impressed with the idea that the 
association might be the coming undenomina- 
tional church. They believed, however, that it 
was to supersede the church, not for the purpose 
of solving questions of state, but to evangelize 
the world. 

In the convention which met in Troy, July 13, 
1859, "some speakers went so far as to say that 
the churches had wholly failed; that their divis- 
ions had put it out of their power to evangelize 
the world and that the associations had there- 
fore been raised up to do this work in their 
stead. Others were content with insisting that 
as a Christian body we were bound to do any 
Christian work that we could."* 

But the spirit that inspired these revelations 
was not inherent in the associations, and its stay 
with them was not prolonged ; it was disloyal 
alike to the church and to the association. 

Speculations like these, however, and the con- 



* The early story of the confederation of the Young Men's 
Christian Associations by Rev. Wm. Chauncy Langdon, D. D., 
page 43. 

27 



federation of the associations rekindled the fears 
of cautious men. who, contemplating the possi- 
bilities aside from probabilities, seemed to see 
visions of danger. So far the associations had 
done nothing worthy of serious condemnation. 
How could they under the guiding influence of 
such men as Mr. George H. Stewart, of Philadel- 
phia, or Prof. Howard Crosby, of Xew York? 
But there were fears that under the leadership 
of ambitious and unscrupulous men they might 
be led to assume church functions or to become 
a new political party, or at least to become the 
balance of power between existing parties. 

These dangers, however, were only imaginary, 
for the associations had neither machinery nor 
motor power capable of running or wrecking 
churches or political parties. They could not., 
alone, even run themselves. Their income from 
the annual dues of members was so meager that 
they were compelled to depend upon the contri- 
butions of the churches and the subscriptions of 
business men to meet the current expenses. So 
if they attempted to organize or aid any move- 
ment that might compromise business interests 
or to meddle with questions which the church 
believed should be adjudicated by church courts 
rather than by unauthorized young men, the 
church or the community could readily silence 
them by simply doing nothing. 

From the first individual churches aided the 
associations hoping that by the Christian work 

23 



done the associations would in some way benefit 
and increase the usefulness of young men, but the 
aid given was tentative, for work by association 
methods was an untried experiment in this coun- 
try and the associations themselves were untested 
agencies. 

When, however, it became possible from the 
lapse of time to count results instead of expec- 
tations, the question, "Has the association any 
well-defined mission that makes its existence de- 
sirable or its support advisable?" was asked by 
many, inquiringly by some, but with a negative 
implication by others. 

However, this question, though so imposing, 
was baseless. The work out of which the re- 
sults grew was general Christian work which the 
association had been induced to do, but which it 
was never organized to do, while the expectations 
were based on a special work which it was the 
mission of the association to do, but which . it 
had been induced to leave undone. Between 
the results and the expectations, between the 
work the association had done and its mission, 
there was no relationship, neither were there any 
elements of comparison. Apparently it had been 
forgotten that the association had been turned 
aside from its own specific mission from the first, 
and this forgetfulness, together with the chore- 
like character of much of the work it had been 
doing, left room for the impression that it had 
been honestly weighed and found wanting. 

29 



The association thus reached the end of its first 
decade in almost utter ignorance of its own 
special mission and there was no very general de- 
sire for its further continuance. Nevertheless, 
with but little devising and in a measure inci- 
dental to the work it had done, it had instituted 
movements which were radical and far-reaching ; 
it had taught young men to take a more active 
part in Christian work ; it had given the churches 
an object lesson in union work which showed 
them that Christians of different denominations 
could work together for the Master diligently 
and cheerfully without the first plank of a com- 
promise platform beneath their feet; and it had 
given a start to young men like Dwight L. 
Moody, who afterwards went out as lay-evan- 
gelists with the Bible in their hands and preached 
the gospel unadorned with rhetoric and unob- 
scured by logic, thousands being reached and 
brought to repentance. The work still goes on 
and the end is not yet. But this was not the 
legitimate work of the association and the prob- 
ability was that it would be at rest in a pau- 
per's grave before the end of another de- 
cade. This unhappy result might have come 
about had it not been that there were men 
who believed that the association had a 
specific mission, and though they could not 
show their faith by its work, they held fast to its 
integrity, and the next ten years wrought out its 
salvation. 

30 



When the second decade of the association 
commenced the civil war had come, and by the 
enlistment of young men in the armies and the 
disturbed state of the country, the membership 
and the income of the associations were so much 
diminished that many ceased to exist and those 
that survived did but little association work 
while the war lasted. Those in the vicinity of 
the army sent relays of young men night after 
night when such were needed to care for the sick 
and wounded soldiers. Other associations con- 
ducted religious services with soldiers or dis- 
tributed reading matter to them in the camps or 
on their way to the front, while nearly all were 
busy devising plans for work to save themselves 
from bankruptcy. But aside from work for rev- 
enue, work of such various kinds had been un- 
dertaken by different associations at one time and 
another that association work seemed to many to 
be an undefined generality rather than a well- 
defined specialty for young men, and members 
who were interested in some special work which 
they hoped might benefit others /as well as them- 
selves readily believed that such work, too, might 
properly be added to the association list and 
much time was wasted in association meetings 
and annual conventions discussing the merits of 
the work which had no relation to the special 
interests of young men. 

While these discussions were showing that 
many failed to understand the true purpose of 

3i 



the association, a few earnest members were 
carefully studying the needs of young men and 
the possibilities of the association. Whenever 
two or more of these members met on the street 
or at their places of business these were the sub- 
jects of their thought and conversation. They 
saw the dangers that surround young clerks and 
others who come from country homes to large 
cities and who are compelled by the smallness 
of their salaries to live in cheap boarding houses 
with no safe and pleasant places in which to 
spend their evenings. It was seen, too, that 
while such young men were within easy reach of 
temptation and far away from the restraining 
influence of home, the distance between them 
and the spiritual influence of the church was very 
great. The church could not reach them by gen- 
eral Christian work, neither could the associa- 
tions reach them by such work. 

Aroused by the Macedonian cry for better 
methods in behalf of such young men, the earnest 
workers appealed from the association doing a 
general benevolent and Christian work to an 
association doing a special definite work for the 
salvation and social improvement of these young 
men. These workers were convinced that if 
the active members of the association, in accord- 
ance with the purpose of its founder, would avail 
themselves of favorable opportunities to speak 
words of friendly counsel to such young men 
individually, many might be interested and influ- 

32 



enced, especially of those with whom such mem- 
bers were associated in their daily occupation, 
and that if the association would provide recep- 
tion, reading and class rooms where young men 
could spend their evenings pleasantly and profita- 
bly with companions who would not fill their ears 
with words of profanity and their memories with 
vile stories, it would save multitudes who other- 
wise would be lost, lost because words of tempta- 
tion were continually whispered in their ears 
while the voices of those who cared for their 
souls failed to reach them. 

These members had some measure of influence 
in the convention which met at Boston, June 15, 

1864, and the papers which were read and the 
work which was done there increased the number 
of such. But though a better understanding of 
the purpose of the association had begun to pre- 
vail, and though the influence of the Boston con- 
vention was apparent in the organization of the 
convention which met in Philadelphia, June 7, 

1865, still there were delegates in the latter con- 
vention, as there had been in the previous ones, 
who had specialties of their own and the exhaus- 
tive discussion of these specialties which had no 
direct reference to association work left only 
the evening of the last day of the convention for 
the brief discussion of association topics. 

But the belief that no meritorious work which 
young men could do could be declined by the con- 
vention on the plea that it was not association 

33 



work, a belief which delegates relied upon to 
keep their specialties before the convention, per- 
ished "with the using" ; it was trampled to death 
on the floor of the convention by its friends, who 
prolonged these discussions day after day until 
they unwittingly convinced a majority of the 
delegates that questions foreign to the purpose of 
the association should not be permitted to mo- 
nopolize the privileges of the convention. And 
the belief that the general Christian work among 
men, women and children was association work 
was disentangled from the creed of the associa- 
tion by Mr. Cephas Brainerd, president of the 
convention, who in denning the purpose of the 
association, gave currency to the apothegm, 
"work by young men for young men," a saying 
which interpreted the constitution of the associa- 
tion, grasping both parties in its membership in 
a single sentence and welding them into one so 
skillfully that no seam was visible to suggest that 
it had ever been two, and which from that day 
has floated on the banners of the association in 
its triumphant march across the continents. 

The convention, mindful of its own experience, 
adopted the following resolutions at its final 
session : — 

Resolved, That in making arrangements for the next 
annual convention, the executive committee arrange for 
not less than three successive days and evenings to be 
devoted to the business of the convention. 

Resolved, That the executive committee be requested 
to report to the next convention a series of topics con- 

34 



nected with the work of Young Men's Christian Asso- 
ciations with the recommendation that at least one of 
the same be discussed at each evening session after the 
organization shall have been completed. 

Thus association topics and an opportunity to 
discuss them were secured for the next conven- 
tion, and at the same time the door was shut 
against the introduction of miscellaneous topics 
which, though they might be meritorious, were 
outside of the association's specialty. 

As a result the grand old ideals which were 
written as with pencils of light on the constitu- 
tion of every Young Men's Christian Association 
in America, but which had been obscured almost 
from the first by misinterpretations and miscon- 
ceptions, flashed on the convention at Albany 
with the force of a revolution and the novelty of 
a new era, and the purpose for which the asso- 
ciation was organized became visible. 

Thus the association, under the tuition of ex- 
perience, mastered the interpretation of its con- 
stitution and learned what work and what 
methods were called for, while the church, how- 
ever much it distrusted the association at first, 
learned by the slow but regular educational pro- 
cess of personal observation to value the associa- 
tion as a training school for Christian workers 
when it saw that many young men who were 
reached by the association in its early years had 
become leaders in church work, and that others 
who took their first lessons in work for the Mas- 

35 



ter in the association were becoming earnest and 
successful pastors, and that the ground of its 
fears of the association had been only "made" 
ground which had already slipped from under 
foot. 

Thus the church, largely by observing the inci- 
dental results of the work of the association, 
learned that the latter was a church agency of 
well-earned merit. And as a passenger looking 
forward from the window of a rear car and 
seeing what seems to be another train crossing 
the track immediately in front of his train, 
making a collision inevitable, is delivered from 
mortal fear when he sees that it is only the engine 
and forward cars of his own train rounding a 
curve in the road, so the church rejoiced and was 
glad when it discovered that the association 
which it had so long feared as an intermeddling 
stranger was only itself in motion. 

When the association had thus, by methods so 
dissimilar, convinced itself and the church that 
it had a mission which commended itself to both, 
then the association was prepared to push the 
work its mission called for and the church was 
ready to help it and from that time the church 
and the association walked together and worked 
together and young men were brought into the 
kingdom. And the realizing of both the spiritual 
and the secular ideals of the associations was 
quickened. 

Year after year the association had besought 

36 



the church for buildings adapted to its work, 
but the church saw that no buildings could be 
adapted to the irregular and ever varying work 
which they were doing and it feared that neither 
itself nor the associations knew what use they 
would make of buildings if they had them. But 
after the church and the association had reached 
a true conception of the purpose of the associa- 
tion and an understanding of their respective 
relations, and after the association had resolutely 
taken hold of its own special work for young 
men, the church saw that buildings were needed 
especially designed for such work. When the 
associations proposed to insure the security and 
proper use of their buildings by vesting titles in 
boards of trustees composed of well-known 
church members and business men, contributions 
to building funds increased and the building era 
commenced. 

The low estate to which the associations had 
fallen before they had fully learned the true pur- 
pose of their work and the quick and practical 
recognition of their value by the church and the 
public afterwards, may be seen by referring to 
a few items in the financial history of a single 
association. 

At the annual meeting of the New York city 
association in May, 1863, the following state- 
ment was appended to the treasurer's report : — 

"In settlement of the claims against the asso- 
ciation, some of which date back several years, 

37 



the finance committee has found much sympathy 
and cooperation on the part of the claimants. 
To such a practical degree was this friendly 
feeling manifested that the sum of $1,109.59 was 
accepted in discharge of liabilities of double that 
amount." 

This generosity of its creditors was not based 
on the fact that half a loaf is better than no 
bread, but on their belief that the association 
was worthy of help because they saw that it was 
adjusting itself vigorously to do a work which 
betokened much good to young men. Their 
belief became full assurance and the progress 
and prosperity of the association became ap- 
parent to all when in December, 1869, it dedi- 
cated its first building worth nearly five hundred 
thousand dollars, while other associations were 
rewarded with similar prosperity for like work. 

While the associations occupied hired apart- 
ments, only a few employed salaried officials, 
and these were known by a variety of titles, but 
when the annual convention of the associations 
of the United States and British Provinces met 
in Washington in May, 1871, a few of these men 
whose titles were various and whose work was 
miscellaneous assembled in council and wisely 
called themselves general secretaries. But thq 
secretaries of the excutive committee, in their 
search for general secretaries to guide the new 
associations or invigorate feeble ones, soon 
learned that general secretaries, unlike poets, 

38 



had to be made as well as named, and 
Mr. Robert Weidensall, the western secretary of 
the executive committee, and others labored in 
season and out of season for the organization 
of schools to prepare candidates for general sec- 
retaries and for other Christian work. After 
such schools had been organized and had begun 
to bear fruit, no midnight arguments were 
needed to convince associations of their 
usefulness. 

The great advance of the association in the 
last half of its second decade in work for young 
men on the lines marked out by its constitution 
brought it face to face with its life work and 
enabled it to make its future history a record 
of the special work and normal development of 
a clearly defined institution. When it reached 
the twenty-fifth anniversary of its organization 
many associations had secured buildings. With 
buildings of their own adapted to their work 
in its various departments and with a member- 
ship of Christian young men strong in the Lord, 
and directors wise to direct and general secre- 
taries qualified to organize and supervise their 
work, they had become institutions such as were 
foreshadowed from the first by their constitu- 
tions, and they were recognized by the church 
as its strong arms reaching rescuing hands 
down to young men in deep peril. As their fa- 
cilities for work increased, they busied them- 
selves gathering young men into Bible classes, 

39 



prayer meetings and other religious meetings 
and into classes for intellectual and social im- 
provement and for physical care and culture in 
the association buildings. This activity in their 
secular work for young men led a few to believe 
that the associations were about to abandon 
Christian work and to become merely secular 
institutions, but the direct Christian work the 
association was doing for young men in its own 
province was much more efficient, though less 
conspicuous, than the general work it had been 
doing. 

Moreover, to young men badly cared for in 
cheap boarding houses and surrounded with 
temptations, the literary classes, the gymnasiums, 
the libraries and the reading rooms of the asso- 
ciations are as ladders let down to them, on 
which by their own efforts they may climb to 
moral, intellectual and social levels from which 
they can reach business positions which will 
bring with them higher salaries and be followed 
with better boarding houses and better moral 
and social surroundings. 

The secular work of the association is so in- 
terwoven with its Christian work that its influ- 
ence is largely Christian. The educational 
classes, gymnasiums and reading rooms draw 
these young men several evening hours every 
week from surroundings which are incentives to 
vice and associate them in their studies on terms 
of friendly intimacy with Christian young men. 

40 



From the vantage ground of such companionship 
many are easily persuaded to enter the Bible 
classes and prayer meetings of the associations 
and afterwards to accept the offers of salvation. 
As the crowning result of its first quarter of 
a century, the association learned what its work 
was and how to do it, and the church learned to 
bid the association, "Godspeed," both with words 
of encouragement and with material aid. 
Young men were snatched from the grasp of the 
tempter through the agency of the secular de- 
partments of the association, while from its spir- 
itual harvest field the glad shouts went up, 
"Bringing in the sheaves, bringing in the 
sheaves," and the church was strengthened and 
God was honored. 



41 



PREFACE TO ESSAYS 

The following essays, the outgrown literature 
of the association, bring to view ( I ) many of the 
circumstances which impeded and many which 
facilitated the growth of the association in the 
light of the day in which they occurred; (2) the 
pedagogic training it needed while it was making 
possible the great work which has since been 
done; (3) much in the condition of young men 
and the customs of society in great cities that 
made Young Men's Christian Associations a 
necessity. 

THE AUTHOR. 



THE WORK OF THE YOUNG MEN'S 

CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION: WHAT 

IT IS AND HOW TO DO IT 

[An essay read before the New York Young Men's 
Christian Association, September 26, 1864. It was 
written to remind the association of the characteristics 
of its work, and the method of doing it, and also to 
urge churches and communities to furnish associations 
with buildings adapted to the various departments of 
their work and to suggest that such buildings could be 
secured from misuse by vesting their titles in boards of 
trustees composed of trustworthy men.] 

Multitudes of young men come from the country to 
our city every year to find employment. All classes, 
trades and professions are represented. They come 
from farmhouse, college halls, village store and work- 
shop. In their country homes they have been taught 
to honor and cultivate virtue and manliness. There 
female society uses its power to cheer, refine and ele- 
vate ; seldom to debase and ruin. There vice, when it 
does exist, is seen in its natural loathsomeness, making 
it easy to be recognized and avoided. There those who 
indulge in one immoral habit, or cherish a single im- 
moral habit, are sure to lose the respect and confidence 
of their associates. 

Brought up in the midst of such restraining influences, 
with but few temptations, inducements or opportunities 
to stray from the ranks of the virtuous, most of them, 
if not moral from principle, are, at least, passively 
moral. 

But here, instead of the dingy grog shop, with its 
few, ragged, bloated patrons stealing through its nar- 
row doorway, which no one can enter without being 

45 



seen by sharp eyes and reported by swift tongues, they 
will find saloons fitted up like royal palaces, with fresco- 
pictured walls and marbles and mirrors, playing foun- 
tains and bewildering lights, and through their ever 
open doors one may glide with the multitude with as 
little seeming individuality to the unpracticed eye as 
the particles of vapor that go up before the morning sun. 
Here, instead of that general knowledge of each other's 
affairs and neighborly supervision of each other's habits, 
which makes the concealment of evil practices impos- 
sible in rural communities, they will find that there are 
facilities for concealing every degree of wickedness, 
from the slightest excesses to the foulest villainies. The 
veil of secrecy, woven by the indifference of the good 
and the subtlety of the vile, is so impenetrable that a 
man may be drunk every night and yet an honorable 
judge every morning, that men may go down to the 
very gates of hell every night in the week, and yet every 
day in the year associate in business, in works of bene- 
volence, and the forms of religion even, with moral and 
religious men. 

Here, while yet without associates, but yearning for 
companionship, they will meet with fellow clerks or 
fellow boarders, who are beginning to fall into habits 
of dissipation, but who are frank, generous and social, 
ready to cheer them with a kind word, an invitation to 
the drinking saloon, the theater, or the dance house, 
or to while away their unoccupied time with recitals 
which will inflame their passions and excite their appe- 
tites ; and Satan's own suggestion — whispered first in 
paradise — that a personal knowledge of vice is necessary 
to enable them to judge wisely and avoid understand- 
ingly, will be echoed in their ears ; and insinuations will 
float around their heads so quietly as scarcely to awaken 
conscience ; that now is a safe time to acquire such 
knowledge, while they are unknown, and far away from 
mothers' watchful eyes, fathers' warning voices and 
neighbors' tell-tale tongues. Here, with no home circle 

46 



or home neighborhood to cheer or restrain them, they 
will meet with those who make gain by alluring others 
to sin, and who are ever ready to practice their art 
on young and confiding strangers, leading them by 
almost imperceptible degrees into practices which com- 
promise their self-respect and advance them far on 
the road to ruin before they are hardly aware them- 
selves of having left the path of rectitude. These min- 
isters of evil conceal the natural deformities of vice 
with costly surroundings ; assume the appearance of in- 
nocence and respectability themselves, and moralize, 
deceive and destroy, like the serpent-devil in Eden. 

Coming here, where such unwonted pressure will 
be brought to bear upon them, their mere passive 
morality will be in danger of giving way, and in many 
cases will give way, unless Christian young men, by 
corresponding watchfulness and effort, shield them from 
such demoralizing influences and companions. To 
reach them before they fall into the snares which are 
everywhere spread for them, to retain them in the path 
of virtue and lead them to put their trust in Him Who 
will be as a wall of iron between them and the tempta- 
tions of the city, is a work of very great importance. 

It is important not only to themselves, their parents 
and friends, but also to their employers, their country 
and the church. To them, for it keeps them from falling 
into habits which would blight their manhood and drag 
them down to the chambers of death, ruined for this 
life and the life to come. To their parents, for it pre- 
serves to them dutiful sons to honor and cheer their 
declining years, instead of vile, heartless wretches to 
send them sorrowing to the grave. To their employers, 
for it furnishes them with honest, active, intelligent 
clerks and workmen, instead of careless, stupid, pilfer- 
ing, gambling inebriates. To their country, for it gives 
it useful citizens, able statesmen, and strong defenders, 
instead of felons and paupers to fill its penitentiaries, 
eat up its substance, and debase its sons ; and to the 

47 



church to which it gives men of piety and zeal for its 
prayer meetings, its Sabbath schools, its mission schools, 
its tract districts, and all its works of love and charity, 
by which it strives to bring salvation to man and honor 
to God; and this work, so imperatively demanded by 
all the best interests of society is the work for which 
the Young Men's Christian Association was organized; 
and it is a work which requires and is worthy of the 
unstinted aid of our wealthy men, and the unfaltering 
energy of our young men, and these two elements of 
success must be combined to give practical value to 
any measures which may be devised for its accom- 
plishment. 

To be enabled to grapple successfully with this work 
the association must have money ; and as it derives no 
revenue from the work itself — which is purely bene- 
volent, and consequently cannot be self-sustaining — 
it must continue to depend on the liberality of the 
generous. But unlike other benevolent societies, whose 
members merely contribute or solicit funds for their 
support, while their work is done for the most part 
by paid or volunteer agents, under the direction of the 
officers and boards of managers, its specific work is 
done exclusively by the individual personal efforts of 
its members, and its efficiency is greatly diminished 
when their labors are continually diverted from their 
proper channel, to obtain funds for current expenses ; 
and those who contribute to its support, disliking to 
be constantly solicited for small sums, would probably 
prefer that their donations should go towards securing 
a building which should be owned by the association or 
held by trustees for its benefit, and which would furnish 
rooms for its use, and for stores or offices, whose rental 
would produce an income sufficient to carry on its 
work. Such a house, showing the confidence of our 
citizens in the future usefulness of the association and 
their appreciation of its past services, and securing the 
advantages of a permanent location, appropriate rooms 

48 



and accommodations, and an opportunity to bring its 
whole force to bear on its own special work, would 
very greatly increase its power for good. 

This house should be located in a central and easily 
accessible part of the city; should be sufficiently con- 
spicuous and imposing to attract attention, and be 
readily found by strangers ; and should contain a library 
of interesting and instructive books; a reading room, 
well lighted and warmed in winter, and supplied with 
papers and periodicals from all parts of the country; 
a lecture room for the monthly meetings and lectures 
of the association and convenient for religious meetings 
and anniversary purposes ; and class, committee and 
conversation rooms, where young men who sleep in 
stores, lodging houses or offices could spend their 
evenings in social intercourse and moral and intellectual 
culture, instead of being driven to the theater or con- 
cert saloon to waste their time and money and peril 
their health and character. And in portions of the city 
remote from this central house, and occupied with 
boarding houses for clerks or mechanics, rooms should 
be secured for libraries and reading rooms, made as 
attractive as possible, and warmed and lighted during 
the long winter evenings ; for many, when they first 
come to the city, receive but small salaries and are 
unable to warm and light their own rooms, and would 
very gladly avail themselves of the privileges of such 
rooms, if near by; and in connection with these rooms 
branch associations would spring up and many more 
would be reached and benefited. 

To obtain these necessary instruments for the work, 
the association needs money; but to use them and do 
the work it must have men — not names merely, but 
willing, working men. Its membership should embrace 
every active Christian young man in the city. 

From its commencement it has had a few members 
who clearly comprehended the character of the work, 
fully appreciated its vital importance and necessity, 

49 



and, regardless of the injudicious action of some, the 
selfish action of others, and the indifference of many, 
they have toiled on patiently and successfully. 

But the magnitude of the work demands the aid of 
all. They are needed to seek out young men taking 
up their residence here, to cultivate their acquaintance 
as they meet them at their boarding houses or places 
of business, to aid them in obtaining suitable employ- 
ment, to assist them in selecting proper boarding places, 
to secure their attendance at some place of worship on 
the Sabbath, and to introduce them to the members 
and privileges of this association, that they may be sur- 
rounded with moral and religious companions and in- 
fluences, and become interested in Christian enterprises. 

If Christ's disciples will manifest a friendly interest 
in their welfare while they are yet strangers, and 
show an earnest desire to promote their happiness 
and prosperity by striving to benefit them materially, 
morally and spiritually, they will win their confidence 
and gratitude, and be enabled to exert a salutary in- 
fluence over them; and by judicious counsel they may 
induce many to accept the disciple's Master as their 
Master, and the Christian's God as their God. And 
young men, thus shielded from temptation and saved 
from ruin by the care of the churches through the 
agency of the association will not fail to become earnest 
working members, having their zeal quickened by a 
fresh remembrance of the benefits so recently conferred 
upon themselves. So that every successful effort will 
not only do immediate good, but will also increase 
the strength and capacity of the churches and the asso- 
ciation for still further usefulness. 

These are some of the duties which the work im- 
poses. A few thousand dollars from the superabun- 
dance of the wealthy, a few hours of the time of each 
Christian young man in the city, will suffice for their 
discharge ; but discharge them aright, and eternity will 
be too short to unfold their results. 

50 



If the business men and the Christian young men of 
New York will furnish the association with the assist- 
ance necessary to make these two measures practical 
— the one, a house with its library, reading room, and 
their branches, being its working means ; and the other, 
a membership of sleepless activity and untiring zeal, 
being its working force — it will become a power 
stronger for work than the fabled Hercules, with more 
hands than hundred-armed Briarius to welcome and 
guide the stranger, and more eyes than Argus to watch 
the footsteps of the unwary. And many will be reached 
and retained and prepared to take their places with 
working Christians to assist in rescuing others, staying 
the progress of evil and extending the kingdom of 
holiness. But if Christian men are too busy with their 
schemes of ambition to attend to their Master's work, 
if they are too much occupied with their own mortal 
bodies to look after the immortal souls of others, then 
these young men who need their counsel and watchful 
care will be lost ; dragged away to the dens of iniquity ; 
dragged down to the depths of hell, and this stinging 
rebuke will ascend forever with the smoke of their 
torments : "Sinners enticed me, but no man cared for 
my soul." 



IMPROVEMENT OF THE SOCIAL CON- 
DITION OF YOUNG MEN. 

[Written by request of the International Committee 
and read before the eleventh annual convention of the 
Young Men's Christian Associations of the United 
States and British Provinces, held at Albany, N. Y., 
June, 1866.] 

Society is required by the gospel rule to place the 
means of personal advancement within the reach of all 
its members. The same rule teaches it to value men 

51 



according to their merits, rather^ than their success or 
the position or merits of their ancestors. The theory of 
our national government enforces the same precepts. 
Self-interest, also, which has more influence than gospel 
rules or governmental theories with some commu- 
nities, as well as individuals, requires and teaches the 
same. 

If society will fully discharge these obligations, young 
men may work their way up from the lowest to the 
highest social positions. Those born in poverty may 
accumulate riches. The sons of the ignorant and 
debased may come to excel in literary culture, refine- 
ment, and Christian virtues, and thus become good and 
useful citizens, and reach the position which good citi- 
zenship confers. 

It is true no improvement can be made, no elevation 
reached without effort; neither wealth nor knowledge 
nor virtue nor power comes unsought. By labor and 
care they are acquired, and by the same retained; but 
youthful ambition, aided by youthful vigor and zeal, 
is willing to accept of these conditions, and go forth 
to its life-work, relying on society's obedience to these 
thrice-enjoined commands. But society disobeys the 
divine injunction; it disregards the national theory; it 
neglects its own interests. 

To qualify young men for high social positions certain 
acquirements are necessary — a good moral character is 
one of these. Certain others, though they may be de- 
sirable, are not indispensable — wealth is one of this 
class. Those who are destitute of these indispensable 
acquirements, however well they may be supplied with 
those that are not such — those whose characters are 
bad, however much wealth they may possess, cannot 
be allowed to occupy a ruling position in society without 
degrading it. Qualifications that are not essential can 
not be safely substituted for those that are. Therefore, 
society should guard itself against tolerating such sub- 
stitutions, and should guard young men against the 

52 



danger of losing or neglecting these essential acquire- 
ments while seeking those that are not essential. 

How does it discharge this duty? It shows young 
men that wealth is the key which most readily opens 
the jealously guarded doors of exclusive society, and 
the social consideration which it confers induces many 
to seek it, even at the risk of ruin to the moral character. 

The facilities for acquiring wealth are greater in 
cities than in rural districts. There is a demand for 
labor and skill and intellect in the great commercial and 
manufacturing centers, and multitudes leave their homes 
in the country and crowd into these centers. In doing 
this, they resign the social privileges and advantages 
of their own home circle, and trust society to make 
good the sacrifice. How does it execute this trust? 
Does it offer them safe substitutes for the homes and 
companions they have thus left? No. Although they 
may be virtuous, intelligent, and refined, and although 
they are laboring for the good of the community, and, 
at the same time, to acquire that which will secure for 
themselves the respect of all classes, and though society 
knows that those of them who are successful will, in a 
few years, be honored and influential citizens, yet, until 
they win success, it chooses to treat them as strangers 
seeking subsistence, or adventurers in pursuit of 
fortune ; and no domestic circle capable of throwing 
a cheering, refining, and elevating influence around them 
will receive them when the toils of the day are over, 
but they are compelled to depend for companionship upon 
those who will corrupt their morals and debase their 
manners ; upon dissipated young men who have, perhaps, 
gone out, like themselves, from happy firesides with 
high hopes and spotless characters, but have fallen into 
the snares or yielded to the temptations to which they 
are now exposed. With such companions they are 
compelled to mingle in banks, stores, and work shops ; 
and with such they are crowded together in lodging 
rooms and boarding houses, the virtuous and the vicious, 

S3 



the learned and the ignorant, the refined and the vulgar, 
standing at the same desk, working at the same bench, 
sitting at the same table, occupying the same room, 
and sleeping together in the same bed. In boarding 
houses, which small salaries compel mechanics and 
young clerks to occupy, the rooms, unreached by gas 
pipes or furnace flues, are cold, dimly lighted, scantily 
furnished and badly cared for ; and as they contain two 
or three or more beds, and the occupants have no choice 
in the selection of fellow occupants, it often happens 
that young men brought up in comfort and refinement 
are compelled to lodge with those whose systems are 
saturated with whiskey, tobacco juice and foul diseases, 
and whose minds are still more impure than their 
bodies. In such rooms, thus occupied, there is but little 
quiet thought or study, while there is much cigar 
smoking, and vain and lewd conversation. A few 
weeks of such intercourse is sufficient to benumb the 
moral sensibilities and prepare young men of no 
thoroughly fixed principles to accept invitations to the 
theater, the concert saloon, or other places of low 
amusement, where they may be induced to take their 
first step in vice, from a feeling that they should not 
be entirely ignorant of what others seem so well versed 
in. If they turn to the church for safe companions, 
they will find that young men, fresh from the homes and 
the churches of their childhood, nowhere feel such utter 
loneliness, such complete isolation, as in the midst of 
a city congregation ; that nowhere does it require 
stronger efforts to keep tears of sadness from their eyes 
than in a city church. Week after week they go in and 
out, and no one greets them, no one notices them. Sad 
and discouraged, they try others with similar results, 
until at last they desert the sanctuary altogether or 
fall into a vagabondizing way, wandering about from 
one church to another, looking for celebrated preachers, 
artistic music, strange doctrines, or strange architecture. 
And they are not only coldly neglected and virtually 

54 



excluded from every place capable of exerting a good 
influence over them ; they are not only, by the smallness 
of their salaries, subjected to physical discomfort and 
suffering and the consequent temptations, but, as if to 
insure their destruction, seductive establishments are 
provided, whose whole influence, whose, sole object is 
evil, whose only occupation is to tempt, entice, and 
ruin the unwary, and whose success is measured by the 
losses and injuries they are able to inflict on their 
victims. Such is the social ordeal through which all 
must pass, who, inexperienced and unaided, seek 
employment in our cities. Yet it is an ordeal which 
benefits none, but injures all and ruins many. 

It is as though every one who came to the city from 
the pure air of the mountains should, lest he might have 
the seeds of disease in his system, be shut up every 
night in the wards of a fever hospital, thus exposing 
him to the contagion of the deadly typhus, and so 
endangering his own life and the lives of those he 
comes in contact with during the day. 

How, then, shall we rescue young men from this low 
pestilential social conditon where society quarantines 
them until they are disabled by floating wrecks, and 
then cuts them adrift to shipwreck in their turn others 
that may come after them? Taking up their residences 
in cities, they need the sympathy and counsel of true 
friends. If left to grope their way alone, they may, by 
one false step, fall, to rise not again. To furnish them 
such friends and counsellors, Young Men's Christian 
Associations were organized. And to reach them with 
the least possible delay, each association should have 
cards in all the depots and hotels in the place where it 
is located, inviting them to its rooms. By such means 
the boarding house committees might secure the oppor- 
tunity of assisting many to select boarding houses 
managed in accordance with Christian principles and 
occupied by those with whom they might safely 
associate. 

55 



Every association should have an employment com- 
mittee, whose members should have the acquaintance 
and confidence of business men. This committee should 
assist young men who are out of employment, or in 
business of an immoral character or conducted on 
immoral principles, to find employment where they 
would not be in danger of forming bad habits, through 
the example or influence of their employers, fellow 
clerks or workmen. 

Young men should be induced, if possible, to join the 
association and engage in its work. They would thus 
become associated with moral and religious young men, 
whose friendship would cheer them and whose counsel 
would profit them. They would also have the advan- 
tages of lectures, literary classes, and social and devo- 
tional meetings for their evenings ; and cheerful reading 
rooms, well supplied with useful and interesting books, 
papers, and periodicals for their otherwise unoccupied 
hours. And the result would be social and intellectual 
improvement, moral elevation, and increased self- 
respect. 

The associations should have members in attendance 
at their rooms, capable of interesting young men in 
conversation, and of leading them to observe and think 
and judge for themselves. 

There should also be a church committee in every 
association, which should have members in every 
church in the place. It should be the duty of this com- 
mittee to look after young men — strangers — coming to 
their respective churches, to speak to them, to introduce 
them to their pastors and others, and to invite them to 
join the Bible class, or, if qualified, to become teachers 
in the Sunday school. 

These are means capable of rescuing many from 
destruction, but they are only temporary agencies to be 
used until society is prepared to correct its false teach- 
ings and remedy their disastrous consequences. We 
cannot protect young men altogether by watching and 

56 



guarding them ; if we attempt it we shall often be 
obliged to say of one and another, in the language of 
the son of a prophet, "As thy servant was busy here 
and there, he was gone" — gone to the house of the 
tempter, gone to return no more. 

It is not the whole of our mission to be prepared by 
our committees and our members to seek out young 
men and shield them from the temptations to which 
they are exposed by those who are ordained to the work 
by society itself, sometimes perhaps by its negligence, 
but often by specific contract. Neither is it our ultimate 
aim to secure concessions or gratuities, but justice; 
it is not to induce society to imperil its own safety for 
others, but to do its duty by itself. We do not ask it to 
endow penitentiaries and asylums to restrain and elevate 
young men, but we do ask it to cut down the trees 
of evil fruitage which it so diligently cultivates for 
their ruin. We do ask it to shut up gambling, concert 
and drinking saloons, and all similar demoralizing 
agencies which make penitentiaries and asylums neces- 
sary. It is vain to say the appetites and passions of 
young men will have these places. If so, why is so 
much expense incurred to make them attractive? If 
young men cannot be kept out, why make such expen- 
sive efforts to get them in? No, it is the unhallowed 
appetites and passions of landlords and proprietors for 
unjust gains that will have them. It will be said that 
young men must have amusement and recreation ; true, 
but amusement and recreation need not and do not 
mean dissipation. Gymnasiums need not be appendages 
of liquor saloons, and literary entertainments may be 
free from the vulgarity and profligacy of the theater. 

We know that thousands of young men come to our 
cities every year with fair prospects, and in a few years 
many of them are found in low haunts of dissipation, 
prison cells or drunkards' graves. But this is not 
because they are particularly prone to vicious prac- 
tices, but because evil and designing men and women 

57 



are allowed to do all they can to debase and ruin them 
while they are yet strangers and ignorant of the forms 
and disguises which vice readily assumes in all great 
cities. They come prepared to see wickedness and meet 
temptation, but they expect to be able to avoid the one 
and resist the other; and so they would be if vice 
always appeared in its own proper character, but such 
is not the case and here is the danger. If they can be 
induced to enter a gambling house, they are not made 
acquainted at first with the vileness which it fosters 
or the villainies which it generates, but they are intro- 
duced to men of influence in social and political circles, 
and to the sons of wealthy men who associate with the 
most fashionable families, and they are led to believe 
that they have found a better class of associates, that 
they are really improving their social condition ; and 
perhaps they never awake to a sense of their danger 
until they are over the precipice and falling, crushed 
and bewildered, from one jagged rock to another. 
When they have fallen to a certain level, society has 
institutions to take charge of them. When they become 
thieves, robbers, and forgers, it has the penitentiary. 
When they become paupers, the almshouse ; when 
assassins, the gallows ; and when they die, the potter's 
field. In each of these cases they become burdens, 
and while they live, useless members of society. Would 
it not be better for society to throw its protecting arms 
around them while they are yet standing erect in their 
integrity, and not wait for them to fall over its own 
stumbling blocks? Would it not be better for it to 
make an effort to keep them moral and useful while 
they are so, rather than to wait until they fall into 
criminal habits, and then be obliged to make a much 
greater effort to protect itself from their depredations? 
Many young men spend their evenings in billiard 
saloons and theaters because they have no comfortable 
place to stay at home. The whole salary of many, now, 
would not board and lodge them as well as their 

58 



employers board and lodge their domestic servants. 
Let them receive in addition to their present salaries 
what their employers pay for sustaining penal and 
reformatory institutions, made necessary by the demor- 
alizing influences to which they are exposed by inade- 
quate salaries, and they would be able to secure com- 
fortable rooms where they could read, write, study or 
think, with no one to molest them, and multitudes 
would thus be kept from social and moral degradation. 
Would it not be more in accordance with the teachings of 
Christianity for the strong men who have themselves 
escaped the breakers to send out the life boat to rescue 
those who are still exposed ; not wait until they go 
down for the last time, then commence their pious 
search for the dead bodies that they may send them 
home to their sorrowing friends? 

Now can any one deny that it is our duty to ask, 
nay, to demand that young men, coming to our cities 
to engage in business shall not be neglected and left 
to ruin simply because they are strangers and yet 
fortuneless, but that they shall receive such treatment 
as their moral character, their manners and their 
education deserve? Such treatment is required not 
only for their social but also for their moral and 
spiritual advantage ; and society is under a moral obli- 
gation, not only to them, but to itself to render them 
such treatment ; and these obligations are readily 
acknowledged, but they are almost universally neglected. 
Excuses are made, difficulties are discovered, dangers 
are anticipated, but there is not a single difficulty, a 
single danger in the way which a resolute determination 
to do right could not easily remove. 

It is for the interest of every man who employs 
another to know something of his character. Every 
merchant should know where his clerks live and how 
they spend their time ; and if he finds that they have 
been fitted by their own home training to associate 
with virtuous and refined families, let him grant them 

59 



the privilege of associating with his — provided his is 
of that class. If his clerks are so numerous that his 
family would be discommoded if they were permitted 
to call at their own convenience, let him set apart an 
evening every month, or oftener, for their reception. 
They should be treated as branches of his own family. 

If each one who employs young men will do this, 
the work which looks so formidable when viewed as 
a whole, will be easily accomplished when thus divided 
among the thousands of employers. And the condition 
of young men will be improved, the safety of property 
intrusted to their care will be increased, and the moral 
purity of society will not be endangered; nay, society 
itself will be improved, for whatever elevates young 
men elevates society, and whatever degrades them 
degrades it, for though it has many members, it is 
but one body, and if one member suffers the whole body 
suffers with it. Let it become the custom for merchants 
to receive their clerks into their families, and they will 
select them with reference to character as well as 
ability ; and when young men find that virtue as well as 
talent is needed to insure success, the inducement to 
avoid evil company and evil habits will be increased, 
and the counting house will become not only a school 
for business discipline but also for moral training. 

It is said, and well said, that families must exercise 
great caution in regard to the character and condiiton 
of those they receive into their sacred circles ; but who 
does not know that the dissipated son of the wealthy 
banker is admitted, unquestioned, into the best society, 
while the poor clerk is allowed to groan unheeded 
beneath the mighty burden of caution which society 
heaps upon him with unsparing hand? But let him 
become a successful and wealthy merchant, and caution 
will fold up its tent like the Arabs and silently steal 
away, even though, in the meantime, his moral sensibil- 
ities may have become blunted, his manners rude, and 
his habits irregular; even though his wealth may have 

60 



been acquired by some bold stroke — no one caring to 
inquire how — yet, if his account stands good at the 
bank, if he can count his millions, the stately doors of 
polished society open as blandly to his touch as the 
meek-eyed violet to the morning sun. 

This, then, is what we complain of, and what we 
have a right to complain of, that society discriminates 
in favor of wealth, regardless of character, and thereby 
injures itself in every part. The sons of the poor learn 
to neglect virtue, if by so doing they can gain wealth ; 
and the sons of the wealthy disregard it, since it is not 
needed for their social advancement. We do not wish 
to charge society with the design of being untrue to 
itself or unjust to any, but it has adopted and is culti- 
vating a system composed of the neglect of positive 
obligations, and the commission of positive injustice 
— a system calculated to undermine the moral character 
of every young man, whatever his circumstances may 
be, who goes out from his father's house to engage in 
the business life — a system repugnant to its own best 
interests, and every principle of Christianity. Shall we, 
then, as Christian associations, remain silent and inac- 
tive ? No ! It is our duty as young men to stand 
together like the Roman phalanx, protecting each other 
with their overlapping shields, not simply that we may 
be at rest, safe from every assaulting missile, but that 
we may move forward, unyielding and resistless, until 
society shall learn to treat young men as justice and 
Christianity dictate, and cease to authorize or tolerate 
their temptation as a business. 

Then, thousands and thousands who never can be 
reached by the direct efforts of our organizations, 
who never can be induced to enlist under our banners, 
will rise to a higher level, and society itself will be 
purified and lifted up. 



61 



THE WORK OF THE YOUNG MEN'S 

CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION IN 

SMALL TOWNS 

[Read before the second annual convention of the 
associations of the State of New York, September, 1867, 
and the first annual convention of the New Jersey asso- 
ciations, October, 1867, and reprinted from the reports 
of their proceedings. A reply to assertions that Young 
Men's Christian Associations were not needed in towns 
or cities having less than ten thousand inhabitants.] 

The primary object of our work is clearly defined. 
It is always and everywhere the same. Its unvarying 
purpose is "to improve the spiritual, intellectual, and 
social condition of young men." But the work itself, 
the manner and means of accomplishing this purpose, 
vary according to surrounding circumstances. 

The particular work for which the Young Men's 
Christian Association was originally designed, was, 
doubtless, to reach young men taking up their residence 
in large cities, and to bring them, if possible, under the 
purifying and protecting influence of the gospel ; and 
this is its chief work still in all large commercial and 
manufacturing towns and cities, into which crowds of 
young men are continually pressing to find employment. 
In such places, its own field is broad enough to occupy 
all of its workmen, difficult enough to require all of 
its energies, and important enough to satisfy its highest 
aspirations. It has no time to engage in other work, 
and it is not needed for other work; for there every 
benevolent enterprise has its own separate organization. 
Temperance, city missions, Bible and tract distribution, 
the care of the destitute — all are managed by associa- 
tions devoted exclusively to their own specialty. 
Individual members of our associations may, and should, 

62 



and do assist in cultivating these other fields, but they 
do it as co-laborers with those who have them in charge. 

But in small towns, where there is no business to 
call in young men from other places, and where almost 
every young man lives at home, and has the advantages 
of home society, training and privileges, no such work 
as seeking out and caring for strangers is called for, and 
if this is the only work our associations can do, then 
they are not needed in towns. But the need of their 
declared object: "The improvement of the spiritual, 
intellectual, and social condition of young men," exists 
wherever young men do ; and the Christian young men 
of the various evangelical denominations in any place, 
associated together and working in unison, can meet 
this need as no other organization can. Banded to- 
gether in Christian union, their first object is the spirit- 
ual improvement of young men ; this embraces their 
own growth in grace and the salvation of those who are 
still out of the ark of safety; and if in attempting to 
accomplish this, they benefit others beside young men, 
then their work is all the more commendable. 

The first step towards this object is the association 
prayer meeting, which all the members should attend; 
if they pray together once a day, or once a week, they 
will be better prepared to labor together; the prayer 
circle is the best place in all the world to wear off the 
sharp angles of denominationalism ; witnessing the fer- 
vency, the sincerity and the zeal of each other in the 
service of the same Master, they will learn to think less 
of the little differences in creed or form that make 
them different denominations, and more of the faith and 
love, and consequently more of the work through which 
that faith and love are manifested, which make them 
Christ's disciples. And besides this prayer meeting, 
others may be established in neighborhoods where but 
few of the families attend church, either from remote- 
ness or other causes. The association can detail a 
sufficient number of its members each week to conduct 

63 



these meetings and invite church members in the vicin- 
ity to assist them. If there are hospitals, prisons, jails 
or almhouses near by, which have no religious services, 
prayer meetings may be held in them if permission can 
be obtained. Young men may be found there who can 
be led to attend to their spiritual interests. Bible classes 
and Sunday schools also may be maintained in these 
institutions and in destitute localities. An association 
composed of Christians of all denominations can often 
succeed in these places when a single church would fail. 
No one denomination, perhaps, could get permission to 
hold meetings in a public institution ; and in a neigh- 
borhood, a prayer meeting would be attended only by 
those who were in favor of the particular church that 
sustained it. 

If there is no society in the place to take charge of 
Bible and tract distribution, the association can do that. 
It may meet with young men in these visits from house 
to house, who otherwise would be unknown to and 
unreached by it. 

There should be an association Bible class ; it should 
be held on such days or evenings as would be most 
convenient, and should be attended by members of the 
association and all other young men that can be induced 
to join it, particularly those who are not members or 
attendants of any church. The study of the Bible can 
be made exceedingly interesting to those even who 
care nothing for it as a divine revelation, and it cannot 
be denied that Bible knowledge, even among Christians, 
is all too scant. How many young men, members of 
our churches and Christian associations, when their 
opinion is asked on any verse or chapter, reply as though 
they had studied it, looked at it in all its relations, and 
prepared themselves to have an opinion and to give 
an intelligent reason for it? Often and often we shall 
find but vague notions where there ought to be thorough 
knowledge. Boys slip away from the grasp of the 
Sunday school before they learn that the Bible contains 

64 



anything more than their Sunday morning task. But 
gather them together as young men to study the Bible; 
give them a teacher who can lay open its rich treasures, 
can point out its objects and aims, can show the con- 
gruity and importance of all its parts, in the symmetry 
and completeness of the whole, and the relation^ of its 
histories, biographies, types and ordinances to the one 
point towards which all its teachings converge, and can 
impress them with the fact that it is God's own perfect 
exposition of the motives that should guide them in 
every act of their lives, and His own unerring chart 
of the path that leads up from the swiftly passing scenes 
of earth to the immortality of heaven, and with God's 
blessing on such teaching and such study, many souls 
will be saved and a multitude of sins will be covered. 

By these and similar means and exertions the stand- 
ard of Christian education will be raised higher ; the 
gospel will be carried to many who otherwise would be 
neglected; and the first object of the association will 
be reached, viz., the conversion of young men who 
have been brought to a knowledge of the truth through 
the influence of the Holy Spirit cooperating with the 
personal efforts of Christians and the teachings of the 
Bible class and the prayer meeting, and also the spiritual 
culture and growth, and the more vigorous and better 
disciplined Christian life of the young men engaged 
in the work. 

Intellectual improvement is desirable in small as 
well as large towns, and here again the association is 
needed as a rallying point for the churches. In inau- 
gurating a course of lectures or a series of concerts in 
a small place, where there are several churches of dif- 
ferent denominations, there is often a difficulty. If one 
church takes the lead, others may look upon it as an 
affair of that particular church and stay away; but 
if it is done by the association all the churches have 
an equal interest in it, and the whole community will 
participate in the advantages. A few good lectures 

65 



during the winter are very useful in a small, quiet town ; 
they awaken thought, and furnish general and instruc- 
tive subjects for conversation, which may take the place, 
perhaps, of useless ones. The association can sustain 
a literary society for discussions, essays, declamations, 
recitations and readings — properly managed, it will pro- 
duce important results. The necessary study and inves- 
tigation will increase the knowledge of those young men 
who engage in its exercises, and the practical training 
it furnishes will prepare them for greater usefulness. 
Those who listen will be entertained, and a literary 
taste will be fostered among all. Classes may be formed 
for the long winter evenings in the languages, mathe- 
matics, bookkeeping, singing or whatever is most use- 
ful ; and the time thus devoted to study may be so much 
reclaimed from vapid trifling. 

Generally in small towns no direct work for the im- 
provement of the social condition of young men is 
required of the association ; but where it does attempt 
anything for that purpose, it must avoid becoming a 
kind of Christian club, meeting for so called innocent 
diversion. So, while striving for mental improvement, 
it must be remembered that it is not merely a literary 
association. And though it must labor to elevate the 
tone of morals, teaching not only by precept but also 
by example, yet it must beware lest it degenerate into a 
mere moral reform society, when it should be an earnest, 
unfaltering band of Christian laborers, going forth 
under the leadership of Him whose name it bears, 
scattering precious seed in spring time — seed which 
may grow up and branch out beyond the bounds of 
time and bear fruit forever in the garden of Paradise. 
Yet the work must vary in different places in order to 
be adapted to the character, habits and conditions of 
the young men dwelling in them. In great cities like 
London and New York, where thousands of young men 
receive but small salaries, occupy boarding or lodging 
houses, and are almost entirely excluded from every 

66 



elevating and ennobling social influence, and in smaller 
cities or large towns where they live in boarding houses, 
or where they are accustomed to spend their evenings, 
lounging about bar rooms, playing cards and drinking, 
the association needs large and attractive lecture rooms, 
libraries and reading rooms, conversation and class 
rooms, well lighted and pleasant, well supplied with 
interesting and useful books and papers, and whatever 
can entertain young men and at the same time cultivate 
their mental faculties, improve their moral characters, 
and promote their spiritual growth. Warm-hearted 
Christian young men should be in attendance at these 
rooms to meet those coming in ; converse with them 
and make them feel that they are welcome. These 
conversations should not be simply a few common- 
place remarks and then a turning away as though a 
disagreeable task was done, but free, cordial, manly and 
unassuming, yet suggestive and instructive, tending to 
increase a young man's self-respect, and fix his atten- 
tion on some important fact or idea which may furnish 
a subject for future thought or contemplation; and 
the number of homeless dwellers in boarding houses 
who can be induced to give up the theater, the concert 
saloon, or the society of lewd companions, and use the 
facilities which the association offers for self-improve- 
ment, is some measure of its success. 

But in a small village where there are few or no 
strangers, and where the young men live at home, 
and where the home influence is elevating and improv- 
ing, and where there are no bar rooms or demoralizing 
amusements to lead them astray, there is no need of 
expensive rooms. A room for board, committee and 
prayer meetings, and Bible and literary classes, and 
a hall for lectures and public meetings, such evenings 
as it may be needed, will be sufficient. A library and 
reading room may not be needed at all. Yet in such 
places, at small cost in money but a liberal expenditure 
of time and energy, much good may be done; and the 

67 



more the association does in small towns, the less it 
will have to do in great cities ; for the young men who 
crowd into cities come, for the most part, from the small 
country towns. 

If they go out from their country homes Christians, 
disciplined to work, they will naturally transfer their 
membership to city churches and associations where 
they take up their residence ; and be prepared to assist 
the churches and associations there, instead of adding 
themselves to the already vast multitude to be sought 
out and shielded from temptation. 

The association, both in country and city, should 
avoid placing itself in antagonism to or in competition 
with the churches ; it should have the sympathy of the 
pastors and be in sympathy with them. Association 
work has no tendency to draw young men away from 
church duties. On the contrary the association is the 
training school, the working agent of the churches. 
The more active young men are in its work, the more 
prompt and efficient they will be in their own churches. 
It increases the power of the churches by strengthening 
the young men already there, and by bringing in others 
ready disciplined for action. 

In arranging lectures or meetings which the pastors 
or congregations of the different churches may wish 
to attend, care should be taken to select, if possible, 
evenings not already appropriated to their regular meet- 
ings in any of the churches. 

Associations should have their plans well matured, 
and then steadily carried out. They should beware of 
earning the reputation of being teams in harness, ready 
to be hitched on to any enterprise which any one may 
desire to set in motion. Designing men are ever ready 
to advertise their talents or business or allow their work 
to be done at the expense and under the auspices of 
the association. 

Every member of the association should take part 
in its work; for as far as the members fail to do their 

68 



duty, so far will the association fail to accomplish its 
object. Those who depend on the committees to do all 
the work soon become dead members; just as it would 
happen in a family that should undertake to do its 
eating by committees — all the members not on the com- 
mittees would soon lose their vitality. 

From the work embraced in these few outlines or 
from other of like import, capable of benefiting young 
men directly or indirectly, both those who are members 
and those who are not, each association can select such 
as it is able to do, and the necessities of its own locality 
may suggest. But when work is to be undertaken for 
the immediate good of others, that should be selected 
which will at the same time tend to develop the Chris- 
tian character of the young men who do it, or give 
them an opportunity to reach and benefit other young 
men who otherwise might remain beyond the circle 
of their influence. 

The duty of the association is plain ; so plain that 
those who run may read; those only who stand still 
can fail to comprehend it. If it will pursue with 
patience the object for which it was organized, per- 
forming with diligence the work designed to accomplish 
that object, it will ultimately become a mighty power 
for good, not only in cities, but in the whole country 
and in all countries, and the churches will rejoice in its 
prosperity, and God will delight to honor it with the 
seal of His approbation. 



69 



QUALIFICATIONS FOR ACTIVE MEM- 
BERSHIP IN YOUNG MEN'S CHRIS- 
TIAN ASSOCIATIONS 

[Intended to call attention to the principle of the 
resolution* adopted at the Detroit convention, 1868, and 
show its reasonableness.] 

There are two qualifications necessary for active 
membership in Young Men's Christian Associations : 
the candidates for admission must be young men and 
Christians. Forty is the limit which has been fixed by 
the associations as the dividing line between young 
and old. But have they any right to shut out men 
merely because they happen to be forty years old? Cer- 
tainly, if they choose to make such a rule, they have a 
right to do it and there is a propriety in it, too ; for the 
associations were designed for the especial benefit of 
young men, to protect them from evil influences, and to 
labor for their salvation and spiritual discipline. 

The originators of the institution believed that, under 
some circumstances, young men could be reached by 
young men more readily than by old men ; and believing 
thus, they had an undoubted right to try the experiment, 
and when it proved successful they very properly con- 
tinued it. 

Active members must also be Christians. But how 
can it be known whether young men are Christians or 
not? Must the associations have boards of examiners? 
No; church membership is accepted as proof. But 
cannot young men be Christians without being church 
members? Certainly, but it is the duty of every young 
man who believes himself to be a Christian to join some 
church ; and if he neglects this duty it is his own fault ; 



* See pages 73, 74. 

70 



and if he persists in keeping aloof from the church he 
is not fit to become an active member of a Christian 
association. 

And the churches of which they are members must 
be evangelical. Is not that making invidious distinc- 
tions? No; it is only saying that the young men of 
certain denominations, believing that their creeds are 
so similar that they can work in harmony, have agreed 
to band themselves together to work for Christ, making 
the salvation of young men their specialty. But if the 
improvement of the spiritual condition of young men 
is the first object of the association, is it judicious to 
exclude those who are not Christians from active mem- 
bership? Certainly. The churches labor for the sal- 
vation of sinners ; did any one ever dream that for this 
reason they ought to receive the unconverted into their 
membership? Still the church does not leave the im- 
penitent uncared for ; neither do the associations. They 
have constituted an associate membership, open to all 
young men of good moral character, or desirous of 
leading moral lives, and the associate members enjoy 
all the advantages that the active members do, and 
all the privileges except the control of the association ; 
and this they cannot possibly have; for from the very 
moment they obtain control of an association, it neces- 
sarily ceases to be a Christian asociation. Can irre- 
ligious young men manage an association so as to pro- 
mote the spiritual growth of themselves or others? 
But cannot Christian young men control the association, 
even if they do admit young men who are not Chris- 
tians to active membership? Possibly they can; but 
all experience shows that they seldom do, for more than 
very limited periods. No provisions of the constitution 
can guarantee to them the control of an association any 
longer than while they are a majority of the voters; 
and yet, unless we allow those who are not Christians 
to vote and hold office, will it be possible to induce 
them to join the association? do we really hold out any 

71 



inducements to them, unless we allow them these privi- 
leges? and do we not need their pecuniary help? If 
they do vote and hold office, and thus secure to them- 
selves the control of the association, what advantage 
will it be to them if they do join it? for then it will 
no longer be a Christian association. If young men 
who are not Christians wish to join for the sake of its 
religious influence over them, they will not desire to 
control it themselves and thus destroy all such influence. 
If they wish to join it for the purpose of controlling 
it, then they wish to join it for the purpose of making 
something else than a Christian association of it, and 
consequently they should not be permitted to hold a 
controlling position in it. If the irreligious young men 
refuse to join the association unless they can hold office 
in it, that is the strongest possible argument against 
allowing them to hold office. If we cannot induce them 
to join a Christian association without first stripping 
it of its Christianity, we do not induce them to become 
members of a Christian association at all, and their 
last state is no better than their first. The only induce- 
ments we have to hold out, beyond a mere social or 
literary association, perish as soon as we grant them a 
controlling influence. And in regard to pecuniary aid, 
it may be said that the associations are not expected to 
sustain themselves by the dues of their members ; they 
are not expected to be self-sustaining any more than 
Bible or missionary societies are. 

Any association that labors to induce irreligious or 
any other young men to join it for the sake of their 
annual dues is engaged in such small business that the 
sooner it dies the better. But is not the falsity of 
the claim, that "good moral character is a sufficient 
qualification for active membership," too self-evident 
to need refuting? It would seem so. if associations 
were not formed every year on this same false basis, 
to sink down after a few months into hopeless imbe- 
cility, leaving the Christian young men connected with 



them on the enemy's ground, bound hand and foot, and 
if to this day there were not hundreds of towns and 
cities destitute of associations, simply because this very 
question has kept the young men talking instead of 
acting. Almost every association that has ever been 
organized has had its incipient movements embarrassed 
and retarded by this same question. Is it well, then, 
to keep silent, when we know by actual trial that a false 
principle like this, embodied in the constitution of an 
association, seldom fails to destroy its usefulness? No, 
it is not well ; for the usefulness of an association 
destroyed means souls lost and Christ dishonored. 

^Extract from Resolutions adopted at Detroit Conven- 
tion, 1868: — 

"Resolved, That, as these organizations bear the name 
of Christian, and profess to be engaged directly in the 
Saviour's service, so it is clearly their duty to maintain 
the control and management of all their affairs in the 
hands of those who profess to love and publicly avow 
their faith in Jesus, the Redeemer, as divine, and who 
testify their faith by becoming and remaining members 
of churches held to be evangelical, and that such per- 
sons, and none others, should be allowed to vote or hold 
office." 

Extract from Resolutions adopted at Portland Conven- 
tion, 1869 : — 

"Resolved, That, as these organizations bear the name 
of Christian, and profess to be engaged directly in the 
Saviour's service, so it is clearly their duty to maintain 
the control and management of all their affairs in the 
hands of those .who profess to love and publicly avow 
their faith in Jesus, the Redeemer, as divine, and who 
testify their faith by becoming and remaining members 
of churches held to be evangelical. And we hold those 
churches to be evangelical which, maintaining the Holy 
Scriptures to be the only infallible rule of faith and 
practice, do believe in the Lord Jesus Christ (the only 
begotten of the Father, King of kings, and Lord of 
lords, in whom dwelleth the fulness of the Godhead 
bodily, and who was made sin for us, though knowing 
no sin, bearing our sins in His own body on the tree), 
as the only name under heaven given among men 

73 



whereby we must be saved from everlasting punish- 
ment. 

"Resolved, That the associations organized after this 
date shall be entitled to representation in future con- 
ferences of the associated Young Men's Christian 
Associations of North America, upon condition that they 
be severally composed of young men in communion 
with evangelical churches (provided that in places 
where associations are formed by a single denomina- 
tion, members of other denominations are not excluded 
therefrom), and active membership and the right to 
hold office be conferred only upon young men who are 
members in good standing in evangelical churches." 



SELF ELEVATION 

[From The Quarterly of the Young Men's Christian 
Associations of North America, February, 1869.] 

Every young man, whatever his circumstances may 
be, expects to rise higher ; and many are willing to 
believe they are succeeding, when, by securing wealth, 
intellectual superiority, or political power, they obtain 
influence and authority among their fellow men ; and 
they are the more ready to believe so, inasmuch as 
the natural heart of man makes him more prone to 
exercise power than to practice virtue. 

But positions of power and influence do not elevate 
the man himself, do not elevate the moral character, 
which is the real man, the immortal man ; they are 
external to him, connected with him, but no part of 
him; exercising an influence over him, but oftener for 
evil than for good. They no more elevate the character 
than raising the height of the pedestal increases the 
size of the statue which rests upon it ; nay, rather, as 
the statue appears smaller the higher the column rises 
on which it stands, so the character of a man not unfre- 
quently becomes more debased the higher he rises in 
worldly influence and prosperity. 

74 



The man who seeks to elevate himself by means of 
wealth may go on carefully accumulating gold, piling 
up dollar upon dollar, and bag upon bag, as though he 
were raising a monument which should overtop and 
outlast the pyramids, and upon whose summit he might 
stand conspicuous to all men through all ages ; and all 
this cannot add one cubit to his moral stature — "pigmies 
are pigmies still, though perched on Alps." But it may 
raise him in the estimation of men ; the multitude will 
look up to the rich man whatever his character may be. 
As the base metals may appear precious by being galva- 
nized with gold, so a man, by surrounding himself with 
gold, seems to conceal the baseness of his character. 
The glitter of gold, like the bright light of the sun, 
blinds the gazing eye ; but remove the plating and the 
deception is gone, the metal is seen in its true light ; 
it is as base and worthless as before. So, strip a man 
of his wealth and the seeming elevation which that 
gave him is gone, and every man will be deprived of 
all his worldly possessions sooner or later, during life 
or at the end of it. The Bible declares that "riches 
certainly make themselves wings, they fly away as an 
eagle," and though we may hold on to our riches with 
the utmost tenacity while life lasts, yet their wings 
are ever plumed, and when death loosens our grasp 
they will fly away bearing all our gold-bought greatness. 

But that we may know positively that wealth does 
not elevate the man, we are permitted to draw aside the 
veil and look upon the condition of the rich man — 
a representative rich man — after death and in that 
future state of existence, where the condition corres- 
ponds exactly with the character formed here. The 
fine linen, the sumptuous fare and the authority of high 
position are all gone now, and in hell he is lifting up 
his eyes and begging for a drop of water; and even 
that small favor is not granted. His condition certainly 
does not indicate any elevation which a wise man 
would be willing to spend a lifetime of effort to secure; 

75 



and to teach us that poverty does not necessarily debase 
a man, we are permitted to see the future condition of a 
representative poor man ; in his lifetime his poverty was 
so great he was obliged to beg at the rich man's gate, 
while dogs instead of doctors dressed his sores ; and 
yet so elevated was his character that after death he 
went up to a position as high above the rich man as 
heaven is higher than hell. 

All this goes to show that the young man who 
attempts to elevate himself by means of riches, will fail. 
"He that maketh haste to be rich shall not be innocent," 
are the words not only of wisdom but experience. 
"It is easier for a camel to go through a needle's eye 
than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God," 
are words which were uttered by the voice of God Him- 
self to a rich young man more than eighteen hundred 
years ago, and the truth changeth not. So the young 
man will suffer disappointment who cultivates his 
his mental faculties with the belief that he elevates 
himself in the same proportion that he increases his 
knowledge and influence ; for intellectual culture is 
not necessarily moral culture, neither is intellectual 
greatness moral greatness. Lord Bacon perhaps 
excelled all the men of his own or any other age in 
worldly wisdom; the beneficial results of his philosophy 
are apparent on every side ; and still we have gathered 
but a part of its fruits — and its first fruits, for it is 
a philosophy which never rests ; its law is progress — 
a point which yesterday was invisible is its goal today 
and will be its starting point tomorrow ; and yet all 
this wisdom, all this power of intellect, did not raise 
his moral character above vile corruption ; he was 
impeached for bribery while Lord Chancellor of 
England. Macaulay declares that "nine-tenths of the 
calamities which have befallen the human race have 
had no other origin than the union of high intelligence 
with low desires." 

It is true, then, that the fullest extent of intellectual 

76 



training which any man is capable of receiving in this 
world, cannot raise him above the position and con- 
dition of the rich man in the future world. The wise 
man can no more enter the kingdom of heaven by trust- 
ing in his wisdom than the rich man can by trusting in 
his riches. 

And so the young man who seeks to elevate himself 
by securing places and positions of trust and authority, 
either civil or military, may go on from one position to 
another, until he reaches the chief magistracy of a great 
nation, or the chief command of great armies, and not 
raise his moral character a single hair's breadth. Napo- 
leon became the greatest of generals and the most 
powerful of sovereigns, but all that did not raise him to 
a level with Lazarus, the beggar. 

Our own great Washington stood high as a general, 
and still higher as a statesman ; but high above both, 
towered the man himself, when in the strength of his 
exalted character, unlike Napoleon, he could save from 
his own tyranny a country which he had saved from 
the tyranny of others. 

In Milton's "Paradise Lost," Satan is represented as 
seeking office for the purpose of elevating himself, 
when, — 

" Aspiring to set himself in glory above his peers, 
He trusted to have equalled the Most High." 

and failing to succeed by other means, he tried rebel- 
lion — 

— " and with lies 
Drew after him a third part of heaven's host." 

But instead of mounting up to the throne of heaven, 
he slid down to the burning marl of hell. 

Probably few politicians of the present day aspire 
so high as he did, and possibly few fall so low; he 
may be an exaggerated example — he surely is an unsafe 
one to follow. But it may be well for us to remember 
that nearly every arch-traitor, since Lucifer, Son of the 

77 



Morning, fell like a star from heaven, was first an 
office holder or office seeker. 

None of these means then have, of themselves, any- 
elevating power, and the man who attempts to elevate 
himself by them may be likened to one who, in the 
strength of his manhood, attempts to build a house 
to which he may retire when age has unfitted him for 
active business ; and before ever he lays the foundation 
he commences with the scaffolding, and spends days and 
months and years in raising and perfecting it, devoting 
all his time to its supervision, and all his income to 
furnish materials and skillful workmen to construct it; 
and those who pass by, seeing its height and strength 
and finish, suppose it surrounds a magnificent structure. 
But when at last his income is all spent, his days of 
activity are past, and he needs the quiet and repose of 
his own finished house, it is found that not even the 
corner-stone is fixed in its place, and the only perfectly 
barren and empty spot in all the neighborhood is the 
one on which he intended to rear his mansion; but the 
scaffolding so occupied his time that not a moment 
could be spared to improve it, and so overshadowed 
it that not a flower could blossom on its surface; and 
after a life of toil death finds him houseless and home- 
less. So he, who spends all the days of his probation 
in accumulating houses and lands and honors, in piling 
up the hay, wood and stubble of this world's greatness, 
altogether forgetting the God who created him, and 
altogether neglecting his own soul's salvation, will find, 
when he comes to lie down to die, that all his labor 
has been in vain, and his poor, neglected soul must 
sink down to endless woe. As the scaffolding is of 
no use in laying the foundation of the house, and even 
afterwards, if used only to raise itself higher, so power 
and riches, if used merely to increase themselves, or 
to form the basis of man's greatness, do not elevate 
the character of their possessor. 

We have now seen the young man in pursuit of 

78 



wealth, in pursuit of knowledge, in pursuit of power. 
We have seen him write Excelsior on his banner, and 
engrave "labor vincet omnia" on the palms of his hands, 
and then commence his treadmill march, ever toiling, 
ever climbing, but never rising. How then shall he 
elevate himself? The one and only way is by striving 
to do his duty to his God, to his neighbor, and to 
himself; by striving to accomplish the object for which 
he was created, by seeking first the kingdom of heaven, 
and then using whatever of these things may be added 
to honor God. Not with the expectation of purchasing 
His favor, but because he prefers God's glory to his 
own. Using them in deeds of charity and benevolence 
for the benefit of his fellow men ; not that he may 
secure their votes or their commendation, but because 
it is more blessed to give than to receive. 

A certain rich man, when his grounds brought forth 
so plentifully that he had not where to bestow his 
fruits, instead of giving them to feed the hungry, and 
to replenish the treasury of the Lord, thought only 
of pulling down his barns and building greater, that 
he might store his goods, and thus be prepared to 
gratify his appetite and indolence; but when he had 
much goods laid up for many years, and had determined 
to take his ease, to eat, drink, and be merry, he died; 
and God wrote his epitaph — "Thou fool." 

The treasures of earth offer but slight compensation 
for the soul's peril. The cares of riches are nearly 
as corroding as the cares of poverty; the sufferings 
of a night of sleepless anxiety are nearly the same 
to the rich man who cannot sleep for fear a speculation 
he has entered into will not add ten thousand dollars 
to the million he already possesses, and to the poor 
man who remembers that his last dollar is spent, and 
he knows not where to find food for tomorrow. It 
makes but little difference whether we roll in wealth 
or pine in poverty, for the few short days allotted to 
us. But poverty does not, of itself, elevate the char- 

79 



acter. Some men, though they never manage to secure 
wealth, do manage to secure some of its worst effects. 
They allow it to occupy all their time and thoughts, 
but are so fearful of losing what little they do get 
that they dare not use it, even for the purpose of 
increasing it; and so for a few old pennies, buried 
perhaps in the ground lest some one should find them 
while the}* live or inherit them when they die, they 
spend anxious lives and lose their own souls. But he 
who, regardless of all these external circumstances — 
of riches, of povertj*, of wisdom or ignorance, of power 
or weakness, strives to serve God with his whole 
heart and mind, might and strength, will mount up 
at last as on the wings of an eagle, to be forever with 
Him in heaven. 

And the young man who desires to elevate himself, 
not for time only but for eternity, must make it the 
chief object of his toil, the chief aim of his existence, 
to glorify God on earth and lay up treasure in heaven. 
Then the house of his eternal habitation will stand on 
the Rock of Ages where the winds and storms of this 
life can never prevail against it. 



80 



The following articles appeared in the Chris- 
tian at Work between May, 1868, and Novem- 
ber, 1870. 



(May, 1868) 

PERSONAL EFFORT 

The work of the Young Men's Christian Association 
is preeminently a work of direct personal effort. 

The devil has intelligence offices on almost every 
corner of some of our city streets, where young men 
can be initiated into his service. In almost every 
store, workshop and boarding house, he has agents 
(irreligious and immoral young men) swift to do his 
bidding. When young men find employment in stores 
or shops where they are employed, or become boarders 
in houses where they board, they meet them with a 
ready welcome ; they invite them to the theater, the 
concert saloon, the gaming table, or some worse place, 
and they lead them to the very brink of ruin ; while 
the Christian young men in the same shops and houses 
are still hesitating about the propriety of seeking their 
acquaintance, or excusing themselves for neglecting 
to take them by the hand when they first come among 
them, lonely strangers. 

The Young Men's Christian Association was 
designed to remedy these cruel evils. It is the duty, 
and should be the work of every member to invite — not 
officiously, but cordially and earnestly — every young 
man within the circle of his acquaintance and every 
one who becomes a fellow clerk or fellow boarder, not 
simply to go to church, but to accompany him there 
and to the rooms and meetings of the association. No 
member should be acquainted with a young man a 
single day without conversing with him on the subject 
of his soul's salvation. 

May the time soon come when each member of every 

83 



association shall be a "Lord, what wilt Thou have me 
to do?" Christian, instead of a mere "pray have me 
excused" professor ! 



(July, 1868) 

FROM AN ADDRESS TO THE YOUNG 
MEN OF BERGEN, N. J., JUNE 26, 1868. 

The chief object of the Young Men's Christian 
Association is the conversion of young men ; all its 
other objects are but preliminary and introductory to 
this, the one great and grand aim of all its efforts. 

There are many unconverted young men in our towns 
and cities, who receive no benefit from the church, 
because they carefully keep themselves beyond the 
circle of its influence. 

The church publishes the good news of salvation to 
all who come within its reach, and the association 
prefaces the work of the church by going out into the 
by-ways and the broadways to seek out these young 
men and constrain them to come in. 

There are other young men who are anxious for 
their own salvation, but they are strangers and know 
not how to put themselves in communication with 
pastors or churches. These often go voluntarily to the 
association and by it are guided to the churches and 
to Christ the Redeemer. 

The watch-word of the association is earnest, per- 
sonal effort on the part of each one of its members. 
If the work of the association is done at all, it must 
be done by its members ; and every member, if he 
does his duty, when he becomes acquainted with an 
unconverted young man who does not attend church, 
takes him to the sanctuary, introduces him to his pastor 
and the young men of the church, and they together 

84 



strive to make him feel at home among them, and 
accept their God as his God. Such treatment has a 
tendency to increase his self-respect and to make it 
much more difficult to lead him astray. 

Many of the young men thus cared for become Chris- 
tians and active members of the churches to which 
they are thus introduced; but many of the same young 
men, if they are neglected, which they too often are in 
our cities, become the pests of society, a disgrace to 
humanity, and go down at last to perdition simply 
because no man cared for their souls. 



(September, 1868) 
THE BARREN FIG TREE 

Not many days ago the death of a Young Men's 
Christian Association was reported; and some in irony 
and others in the simplicity of their hearts expressed 
wonder that it should be given up, since its sociables 
were so numerous and so well attended. 

Sociables as generally conducted can no more help 
forward the work, the growth, or the life of a Christian 
Association than artificial flowers can make the sapless 
boughs of an apple tree bear fruit in winter time. 

If we forget that our association is a Christian Asso- 
ciation and allow it to become a mere social, or even 
literary club, from which all appearance of efforts 
to promote the salvation and spiritual progress of 
young men is carefully excluded for fear of driving 
away the irreligious and thus losing our influence over 
them, it is very evident that our influence over them is 
not worth preserving, and that their influence over 
us is quite worth avoiding. 

When the sociables of an association crowd out its 

85 



prayer meetings, when its attractions are the attrac- 
tions of the gambling saloon, or when its highest 
purpose is literary culture only, and its name is still 
called Christian, wo be to the association if it does 
not die, for if it lives it will bring eternal death to 
multitudes of its members. 



(November, 1869) 
ONE TALENT 

There are but few Christians who could not be 
instrumental in the conversion of one sinner within 
the next twelve months. And yet how many will be 
thus instrumental? Even after the warning Christ 
has given us, even after we have seen him who buried 
one talent only, cast into outer darkness as an unpro- 
fitable servant, are there not multitudes that will dare 
to plead smallness of ability as an excuse for idleness? 
But what right have we to stand idle simply because 
there may be better workmen than we are? Pride, 
though clothed in the garments of humility, must not 
be allowed to bury our talents. If our talents are 
small there is all the more need of diligence in using 
them. The merchant whose capital is small and whose 
profits are small can win success only by quick sales. 
But it is not always single talents only that are buried 
in the ground. If every Christian would begin to work 
today; if there could be a universal unwrapping of 
napkins and bringing forth of hidden talents, many 
would find that use would soon develop into ten talents 
what they had long ago laid away as one talent. But 
the Christian who neglects to use one talent, even, 
dishonors his Master, suffers souls to perish, and 
prevents his own growth in grace. Let us beware, 
then, lest we fall into like condemnation. 

86 



(December, 1870) 
DECIDE WHAT TO DO, AND THEN DO IT 

There are many in our churches who never seem 
to be aware that it is their duty to do anything for 
the glory of God or the salvation of sinners. From 
the day their names are enrolled on the church record 
till the day they are numbered with the dead, they 
never make a single attempt to save a soul from death. 
They may be women of energy, intelligence, and 
influence ; earnest in everything that pertains to the 
temporal interests of their friends, but utterly indif- 
ferent in regard to their spiritual welfare. 

There is evidently something wrong with such Chris- 
tians. It may be in their training; their pastors should 
look after them. The foundations of their hope may 
nqed examining. 

Another large class recognize their obligation to 
work, and they really intend to do something, but 
they never can quite decide what to do, and conse- 
quently they do nothing. Perhaps if their pastors 
would go to them and tell them definitely what to 
do and show them how to do it, and get them once 
started, they might be of some use to the church and 
the world. 

Another class go so far as to select their work 
with anxious care, but they never can summon energy 
enough to begin it. A slight effort on the part of 
pastors or fellow church members would set them in 
motion, but unless some force from without starts 
them their life record will recount resolutions only. 

Another class — alas ! how small — promptly decide 
what to do and go straightway and do it. They are 
the working force of the church — the Christians at 
work. They hear the voice of the Master saying, 
"Go work today in my vineyard," and they arise and 
obey. The message, "Go ye into all the world and 

87 



preach the gospel to every creature," sounds in their 
ears and they rest not until the word of life reaches 
the nations that sit in the region and shadow of death. 
The admonition, "The night cometh when no man can 
work," keeps them from pausing until their work 
is finished, and henceforth there is laid up for them 
a crown of righteousness. But they are only what 
it is the duty of every Christian to be, and what nearly 
all Christians would be, perhaps, if a little more care 
was taken to train them aright at first, and what they 
may be, even now, if they will meet their Christian duties 
with the same manly force and lay hold of them with 
the same firm grasp that characterizes their action in 
worldly affairs. 

As a beginning, then, will each one of the thousand 
of Christians that may read this, go without delay 
and select an impenitent friend or neighbor and com- 
mence work at once with personal religious conver- 
sation and prayer, working diligently, praying fervently, 
and trusting in God implicitly? If all will do this 
they will secure a blessing for themselves and multi- 
tudes will be saved that otherwise will be lost. 



FRACTIONAL CHRISTIANS 

"A man in Portland wanted to gain admission to a 
panorama at half price, on the ground that he had but 
one eye." 

If this suggestion of the single-eyed man of Portland 
should be generally adopted, so that the man lame of 
one leg should be allowed to ride for half fare; the 
man deaf of one ear be required to pay only half of 
his pew rent, or — what some would like better — be 
expected to attend church only once a day; and the 
men without teeth should be boarded for nothing; 
does any one like to believe that there are men mean 



enough to pluck out an eye, knock out their teeth, 
or disable a limb to secure this immunity? And yet 
how many Christians are only half Christians, or even 
smaller fractions, just to save expenses. How many 
are willing to be poor, half dead Christians, for the 
privilege of putting only five cents on the collector's 
plate, when the object demands and their income 
would justify a contribution of fifty dollars; how many 
are willing to be miserable, mildewed, doubting, joyless 
Christians, all their life long, to avoid the work which 
a happy, believing, living, growing Christian must do ; 
how many young men in our Christian associations 
would rather be fractional members than to be whole 
souled, active and useful, because to be whole souled 
and useful, they must work for the Master? We ask, 
"How many?" and echo responds, "Oh, many!" 



(April, 1870) 



SHALL WE ORGANIZE A COURSE OF 
LECTURES ? 

This question arises every year in nearly every Young 
Men's Christian Association in the United States and 
British provinces, but it is a question which cannot 
be answered judiciously until many others are first 
answered intelligently. It looks like a simple question, 
to be answered by a single word. On the contrary, 
it is almost too complex to be answered by a volume, 
and it is a question which each association must 
answer for itself, with but little aid from the experience 
of others ; for every community has its own modifying 
circumstances, which often contribute more to the 
success or failure of a lecture than the lecture itself 
does; and yet these different results, though produced 

89 



by external influences, generate a contrariety of 
opinions in regard to the value of lectures generally. 

So it can be of no great use to one association to 
know the simple fact that another association has 
listened to a lecture and failed to be edified or 
instructed, or that one has filled its treasury to over- 
flowing by means of lectures, while, in another, restless 
days, sleepless nights and an empty exchequer have 
been the emoluments of the lecture committee. 

Since, then, the association that attempts to decide 
this question must depend on its own knowledge and 
wisdom for a judicious decision, and since such a 
decision is of very great importance, not only for the 
general interest of the association, but for the individual 
interest of the young men comprising it, and also for 
the business men who employ these young men, it 
behooves our associations to educate and qualify them- 
selves to analyze this question and understand it in all 
its bearings. 

For the use of beginners in this process of self- 
education, the following suggestions are recorded : — 

In the first place, then, an association should learn 
to know definitely what it intends to accomplish by any 
proposed course of lectures, whether to cultivate the 
intellectual powers of its members, increase its funds, 
or gain some other result. If the former, then there 
are objections to be weighed, and advantages to be 
considered. Many of the so-called popular lectures 
are perfectly useless as educators. They merely furnish 
a very low grade of amusements, and many of them are 
worse than useless, covertly conveying false doctrines 
or false principles. These facts admonish us, at least, 
that much greater care should be used in selecting 
lectures than has been heretofore. But all lectures 
should not be discarded because there are bad, indiffer- 
ent or useless ones, any more than all books should be 
discarded for the same reason ; good lectures are, in 
some respects, even more useful than books, for a 

90 



lecture, instead of being delivered to one at a time 
as a book is read, is delivered to a community of young 
men at the same time, and thus gives them a common 
subject for conversation in their stores, work shops, 
boarding houses or societies, so that often the dis- 
cussions and researches which a lecture occasions 
increase their knowledge more than the lecture does ; 
and in addition to this it stimulates them to read 
instructive books and accustoms them to read atten- 
tively, to remember what they read, and to cultivate 
habits of thought and research ; and it enables them to 
see and appreciate the difference between books that 
contain useful facts or teach important principles in 
the arts or sciences, and works of fiction which teach 
nothing, or nothing worth knowing. 

Lecture committees must also acquaint themselves 
with the capabilities of the young men of their 
respective associations, and know what kind of lectures 
they can digest, and what kind of information they 
need; for a lecture may be most excellent in itself, 
and still be useless to the young men if it is too far 
above their comprehension, or teaches nothing except 
what they have already learned. A good lecture 
should contain much useful information, but its chief 
recommendation should be its power to rouse young 
men to greater efforts for moral and mental improve- 
ment. The intellectual grade, then, of the association 
must be known, and such lectures selected as will tend 
to raise it higher. Sometimes the expense of certain 
lectures comes in as an ugly complication, although 
the best are not usually the most expensive. 

But if the purpose is to raise funds, then there are 
nice points to be examined ; if the taste of the people 
whose patronage is desired leads them to prefer the 
performances of the "minstrels" to useful lectures, 
then lecture committees generally feel compelled to 
select from the buffoon class of lecturers, who seem 
to think because Mr. Gough can speak with his coat 

91 



tails, and make the same audience laugh or cry a 
hundred times over the same incident, that coat tails 
and oft-repeated anecdotes are all that are needed, and 
so drawing their inspiration from the last comic 
almanac, and making their lecture subordinate to anec- 
dotes and antics, they caper about the platform to 
the amusement of some, the disgust of many, and 
the improvement of none. But no Christian association 
can afford to organize a course of such lectures, for 
they have a tendency, not only to demoralize the com- 
munity, but also to injure or rather destroy the good 
influence of the association, and to deprive it of the 
countenance, confidence and assistance of Christian or 
even thoughtful men; and it is unjust, both to lecturers 
and listeners, to reject good lectures, which are capable 
of improving heart and mind, and select those that will 
do neither, merely for the sake of money. 

Unless, then, the community that surrounds any 
association is sufficiently high toned, morally and intel- 
lectually, to pay for instructive lectures, it will be well 
to adopt some other method for raising funds. It will 
be far better to secure a few valuable lectures on histor- 
ical, literary or scientific subjects, and make them free. 
Such lectures, by the knowledge they will impart to 
the young men, and by the general improvement they 
will effect in their mental and moral habits, will make 
these young men more useful to their employers. In 
this way the association will secure the improvement 
and approval of all, and will establish a claim on men 
of wealth, which will probably be worth much more 
than the income of even a successful lecture. 

Most of the money raised by lectures comes from 
the friends of the association, who would be willing to 
contribute as much or more for a course of free lec- 
tures ; the small amount obtained from outside parties is 
usually too small to pay the extra expense of pay lec- 
tures. Besides, it is very seldom that a lecture will, of 
itself, increase the funds of any association. Circum- 

92 



stances entirely outside of the lecture may do it — the 
skill or diligence of the lecture committee, the active 
cooperation of all members, or a desire on the part of 
the people to assist the association may sometimes pro- 
duce favorable results. 

Not unfrequently the lecturer, and not the lecture, is 
the attraction. He may be a hero, statesman, author, 
actor, or benefactor, and people may wish to see him, 
and be willing to pay a trifle for the opportunity. If 
his lectures are good, it may be well for associations to 
capture him, if they can, and exhibit him, if they choose 
to go into that kind of business. 

But more need not be said, especially since these 
hints are not designed to guide associations in deciding 
this question, but merely to suggest to them the course 
of study necessary to prepare them to answer it for 
themselves. 



(May, 1870) 



YOUNG MEN'S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIA- 
TIONS SHOULD GIVE THEIR MEM- 
BERS A TEMPERANCE EDU- 
CATION 

The reformation of drunkards is believed by many to 
be the chief purpose of the temperance movement. 
Churches and Christian associations that concur in 
this belief do not feel called upon to engage in tem- 
perance work to any great extent, since drunkards form 
no part of their membership, and are not much under 
their influence. 

Individual church members have united with others 
in temperance organizations outside of their churches, 
and many drunkards have been reclaimed and much 

93 



good has been done ; but there is another and a much 
more important object embraced in the work to be 
accomplished, and that is to keep the men from becom- 
ing drunkards. 

This is preeminently the work of our churches. 
Young Men's Christian Associations and Sunday 
schools. Every church, Christian association and Sun- 
day school should have a temperance wheel some- 
where in its machinery — a temperance committee or 
society of some kind in its organization ; for many who 
have no particular love for drink, but who take it 
occasionally with a friend or at a convivial party, and 
many who drink because they love it, but still drink 
moderately, are in the congregations of our churches 
and the membership of our associations, and it would 
be comparatively easy now, by a proper effort on the 
part of the church and the association, to make them 
comprehend their danger, and to induce them to adopt 
habits of total abstinence ; but by the use of alcoholic 
stimulants they are cultivating a condition of the phys- 
ical system which will soon demand these stimulants 
with a force which will not readily submit to any con- 
trol, if they are neglected until habits of intoxication 
are burned into the very substance of their organs and 
tissues. Then, character being lost, health ruined, 
self-respect gone, the will dethroned and appetite made 
a controlling power, it will not be easy to arrest them 
in their downward course, and it will be impossible to 
restore them to their former condition. Is it right, 
then, for the church and the association to suffer them 
to go on, without any effort to instruct or restrain 
them, until they become drunkards, and then to cut 
them adrift and leave them to become total wrecks, 
unless towed into port by some temperance order or 
society ? Should not the Sunday school commence 
with them while yet boys, and the church and the 
association continue to watch over them in manhood, 
not merely to discover their first symptoms of excess, 

94 



and thus be able to exclude and disown them at once, 
but in order to keep them from being led astray through 
ignorance of the injurious action and deadly effects of 
intoxicating drinks on the physical constitution and 
the moral character? 

The Sunday schools and churches have already begun 
to awake to the importance of this work. Many Sun- 
day schools have their Bands of Hope, and some 
churches have their organized plans of temperance 
effort, and it is high time that Young Men's Christian 
Associations were up and moving. They need not 
become temperance societies, to go to find and reclaim 
drunkards, but they should look after the interests of 
their own members. They should have temperance 
committees to learn what instruction, advice or warn- 
ing the members may need, and to see that their needs 
are supplied by lectures, sermons, tracts, private con- 
versation or whatever other instrumentality may seem 
best. 

Our associations have always recommended temper- 
ance principles, but the time has come when this is not 
enough. 

We build gymnasiums for physical culture and devel- 
opment; shall we quietly witness the use of alcoholic 
liquors when every drop that is received into the 
living body tends, with the certainty and accuracy of 
chemical action, to weaken and destroy it ? At great 
expense of time and money, we establish and maintain 
associations for the moral improvement of young men ; 
shall we raise no voice of instruction or warning, 
beyond a simple vote once in two or three years, while 
alcoholic drinks, the greatest of moral debasers, are 
freely used by young men in almost every community? 



95 



(August, 1870) 

THE RELATIONS OF THE ASSOCIATION 
TO THE CHURCH 

The Young Men's Christian Association, like the 
Sunday school and missionary society, has been organ- 
ized and is managed by church members, though not by 
the church itself in its corporate capacity. Like them, 
too, it is a voluntary association within the church 
designed to labor in a special department. It is the 
working agent of the church among young men, just as 
the Sunday school is among children, and the mission- 
ary society among those who are destitute of the 
gospel. By its efforts many young men, who would 
otherwise be unreached, are brought into the member- 
ship of the church, and by these same efforts its own 
working members are disciplined and prepared for 
greater usefulness in every field of Christian labor. 

These organizations in no way indicate that the 
church is a failure. They rather show its ability to 
adapt itself to every variety of work which may be 
imposed upon it. The church can hardly be considered 
a failure because some of its members spend the only 
day they can have for rest during the week in the work 
of the Sunday school ; or because they leave homes of 
comfort and happiness to preach the gospel in pagan 
lands ; or because its young men engage in the self- 
denying labors of the association, for the purpose of 
honoring God and saving souls. 

The Young Men's Christian Association is a long 
arm and a warm hand which the church stretches out 
to seize young men who are standing on the brink of 
ruin, and to bring them into the sanctuary and under 
the influence of the gospel. Many of these young 
men live in boarding and lodging houses, seldom or 
never attend church, and spend their evenings in 

96 



theaters, bar rooms and billiard saloons. If they are 
reached by the personal efforts of Christians, and 
brought into the church, they are still left in their 
boarding houses, they are still compelled to spend much 
of their time with irreligious and immoral companions. 
The association not only labors for the conversion of 
these young men, but also to provide a place where 
they may have opportunities for spiritual and mental 
culture, and where they may associate with young men 
whose sympathy will cheer them, and whose example 
will stimulate them to deeds of heroism in their Chris- 
tian warfare. If these young men are to become 
efficient members of the church, some agency of this 
kind is indispensable ; can anything better than the 
association be devised? 

Like other agencies of the church the associations 
depend on subscriptions and collections for most of 
the funds required for their current expenses. A few 
of them have secured houses, which they have placed 
in the hands of tried and trusted Christian men as 
trustees, with legal power to exclude them if they 
diverge from the course designated in their charters. 
Thus the church, holding their membership in one hand 
and their property in the other, controls their manage- 
ment with double reins. If some of the young men err 
in conducting the work entrusted to them, will not 
their own pastors take them aside privately, as Aquila 
and Priscilla did Apollos, and teach them the way 
more perfectly? They labor to bring unconverted 
young men into the association, not as an end, but as 
the means of bringing them afterwards into the church. 
Their ultimate object is the conversion of young men, 
and in accomplishing this they increase the member- 
ship and efficiency of the church. 

But there is an objection sometimes urged against 
the association which has no reference to the value 
of the work it is doing, or the mistakes it may have 
made in doing it. It is said in objection to it that it 

97 



is an organization outside of the church. The same 
objection might be made to the Sunday school, the 
missionary society, and all other similar Christian 
organizations; and, possibly, the same objection might 
be urged against the whole Protestant church, if the 
question should be referred to the ecumenical council 
now in session. Technically, it may be outside of the 
church as an organization, but as it is not outside of 
the organized church, it may not be best to disband 
it, together with the Sunday school, the missionary 
society and other kindred associations, until objectors 
show that their church, as organizations, are doing the 
same work better than other churches are doing it 
by their voluntary associations. 



(September, 1870) 
PASSIVE MEMBERS 

Every church has its passive members. Every 
Young Men's Christian Association is burdened with 
them. They are ever ready to receive favors, but 
they have no taste for corresponding duties. They 
become members of the association, not because it 
gives them an opportunity to do good, but because they 
understand there are a few small barley loaves to be 
distributed. They are accurate discriminators between 
labor and its fruits ; they have an appetite for the 
latter, but they carefully avoid the former. They take 
whatever the association provides for their improve- 
ment, simply as a just return for their annual dues. 
They use exclusively for their own advantage oppor- 
tunities which the association furnishes to prepare them 
for greater usefulness in the service of the Master. 

In the nomenclature of the association they are 
denominated active, but they are what grammarians 

98 



call active intransitive ; the results of their activity are 
confined to themselves, never passing over to others 
in the shape of a helping hand or a sympathizing word. 
They make no effort to show their faith by their works ; 
if they are known among the children of God by their 
works only, their acquaintance will be extremely 
limited. And yet to each one of these "flowery-beds-of- 
ease" professors, Christ the Lord is saying, "Son, go 
work today in my vineyard." 

If young men in the membership of our churches 
and Christian associations refuse to work when the 
need and success of Christian zeal and effort are so 
well known, can they expect to escape the fate of him 
who buried his talent? Will the execution of the 
command, "Cast ye the unprofitable servant into outer 
darkness," be stayed, merely because the name of 
the unprofitable servant is found on the roll of a 
church, or in the list of active members of a Christian 
association? 

Young men of energy and ability, who take an active 
part in literary societies, social clubs, or even in the 
secular work of their churches and associations, and 
yet neglect to do anything for their own growth in 
grace, the salvation of others, or the glory of God, 
should not simply be talked at, generally, for this 
neglect of duty, but they should be talked to, individ- 
ually and personally. 

It certainly is the duty of the pastors and Christian 
associates of those who are so "at ease in Zion," to 
urge them to examine thoroughly the foundations of 
their hope, lest, though having names recorded among 
the living, they may be numbered among the dead. 
"For even when we were with you, this we com- 
manded you, that if any would not work neither should 
he eat." 

In "Gates Ajar" nothing is said of an almshouse 
in heaven ; still it is difficult to imagine what other 
position these emaciated victims of spiritual ease will 

LO 99 



be qualified to fill with credit to themselves or advantage 
to others. They can only sit and cultivate everlasting 
nothingness. 

But the God of heaven declares. "'My reward is 
with me. to give every man according as his work 
shall be."' How, then, can those who do nothing ever 
expect to "'enter in through the gates into the city"? 
The doors of the banqueting hall were shut firmly 
against those who went out to meet the bridegroom 
with no oil in their lamps, as they were against those 
who neglected to go forth at all at the ay of his 
coming. 



(October, 1876) 
RESULTS OF SPARE HOURS 

The results of our spare hours often far surpass 
those of our hours of toil. The former may send 
names down through many generations, which the 
latter would suffer to be forgotten in one. The spare 
hours of Benjamin Franklin, the printer, made Dr. 
Franklin, the philosopher. The spare hours of Samuel 
F. B. Morse, while crossing the ocean in a sailing 
vessel, harnessed the electric current and sent it round 
the world laden with messages of business and of 
friendship. "Pilgrim's Progress" was the result of 
spare hours which a prison house could not compel 
John Bunyan to waste. The spare hours of Francis 
W. Upham have recently produced a work* which will 
make his name familiar in the libraries of scholars and 
the closets of Christians. Its masterly exposition of 
the historical accuracy and classical precision of the 
words of St. Matthew, will change doubting sceptics 



* The Wise Men: Who They Were, and How I ley Ci"e to 

Jerusalem. 2/7: ::..-"' "."..:.. hi h 

100 



to believers, induce those who have no love for the 
Bible to respect it, and teach those who love it to study 
it with renewed interest. 

But we shall be told that our spare hours must be 
devoted to diversions that will cheer and exhilarate the 
mind, if we desire health and long life. So thought 
these men, and they turned away their thoughts and 
their hands from their daily occupations, and used 
their spare hours for recreation. 

Shall we suppose their diversions were any the less 
exhilarating because the results were useful? Bunyan 
speaks for himself. In his preface he says : — 

" Neither did I but vacant seasons spend 
In this my scribble; nor did I intend 
But to divert myself, in doing this, 
From worser thoughts which make me do amiss; 
Thus I set pen to paper with delight." 

Was there any lack of exhilaration as his grand old 
figures and similitudes presented themselves to his 
mind, one after another, as in a moving panorama? 
Or as the truth of the identity of electricity with light- 
ning flashed on the mind of Franklin ; and when he 
guided the verifying spark down from the storm-cloud 
and saw it leap to his hand? Or as the theory of the 
electric telegraph developed itself, step by step, in the 
mind of Morse; and when success crowned stage after 
stage of his experiments? Or as deep research dis- 
covered proof after proof, and marshalled it in line or 
argument led on so vigorously by Upham? 

Literary and philosophical recreation does not neces- 
sarily deprive men of fulness of years. Dr. Franklin 
died at the age of eighty-four. Professor Morse has 
reached a good old age, and, though the results of his 
spare hours have benefited the world far beyond com- 
putation, his faculties are still unimpaired. They could 
not be more vigorous than they are today had he dieted 
them during that long ocean voyage on dominos and 
backgammon, the mildest of many recreations. John 

101 



Bunyan lived to the age of sixty, although his early 
life was spent in dissipation, and his meridian in the 
foul atmosphere of a prison. And Professor Upham 
still lives, and diverts his thoughts with studies that 
would quite terrify some younger men. 

But it will be said that these were men of genius. 
True; and so is every young man, for aught he knows 
or ever will, if he waits to find it out. 

One of two fellow apprentices spent his spare time 
teaching his dog to dance, and lived and died a jour- 
neyman house carpenter. The other spent his studying 
architecture, and became an eminent architect. Their 
hours of toil made them alike carpenters. The spare 
hours of both were used for diversion; but one made 
his diversion useful only as a recreation, but beyond that 
of no use to the world, himself, or his dog; while 
the other made his useful, not only as recreation, but 
still further useful to himself and the community by 
using it to enable a carpenter to become an architect. 

Here the genius that won the prize was simply a 
judicious use of spare hours; and similar rewards are 
yet in store for those who desire them on the same 
terms. The present is as full of opportunities as the 
past. There is still a demand for artists and architects, 
for knowledge and skill. There are still discoveries 
to be made in electricity, greater, perhaps, than have yet 
been made. There are still new fields for Christian 
usefulness. Arts, science, and literature still contain 
treasures for those who will search for them. And 
there are young men, even now, drifting through life as 
poor clerks and mechanics, with capabilities, doubtless, 
that might be aroused to achievements greater than 
any here recorded; but playing cards, smoking cigars, 
and endless lounging are not the best means to be 
used to discover the genius and cultivate the talent 
needed for such efforts. 

Young men engaged in business should remember 
when selecting their diversions that not uselessness, 

102 



but present change from their usual occupation is all 
that is required for recreation. If they suffer their 
spare hours to run to waste, they will find but little 
time for mental culture or religious work and medi- 
tation, and their neglected minds will shrivel up like 
unused muscles, until they are unable to grasp an intel- 
lectual idea, comprehend a benevolent action, or appre- 
ciate anything that will not sell for money in the 
market. 

But great as are the direct advantages to devoting 
spare hours to useful purposes, there are indirect ones 
a thousand-fold greater. An innumerable multitude of 
young men are ruined, body and soul, by the results 
of spare hours misused. The proper use of these hours 
being an infallible safeguard against their ruinous 
misuse, will enable young men to escape infamy if not 
to reach eminence. 



(November, 1870) 

WHAT GOOD HAS THE YOUNG MEN'S 
CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION DONE? 

The association, as an agency of the church, has 
furnished a practical example of Christian union, 
the different denominations standing together, not on 
a carefully worded platform of compromises, but on 
the simple, solid ground of work for the Master. 
The daily union prayer meeting, as a permanent insti- 
tution, has grown out of the association movement. 
Multitudes who never came within reach of the pulpit 
have been reached by the gospel in cottage and tenement 
house prayer meetings and open air services ; one asso- 
ciation sustained fourteen of these services during last 
summer. The Christian Commission, which did so 
much for the souls and bodies of our soldiers during 

103 



the war of the secession, was organized by the asso- 
ciation. Christians have been aroused by the asso- 
ciation to see that if they can exhort their brethren hi 
the church prayer meeting, they can speak to the uncon- 
verted in the school house, mission room, on the street 
corner, or wherever a company can be gathered 
to listen, and that if they cannot stand up and speak for 
Jesus in public, they certainly can go and speak to 
individuals in private. 

When Christ fed the multitude in the wilderness, 
He gave to his disciples, and they distributed to the 
people. So now, those who have tasted His love, and 
have enjoyed the privileges and teachings of the sanc- 
tuary, can go out and distribute to those who are sitting 
in darkness and starving for the bread of life. 

The association has assisted the church, also, in 
testing proposed plans for carrying on aggressive work. 
Christians often wish to see certain plans for reaching 
the unconverted tried, and, if found useful, adopted 
by the church; but they may be experiments which the 
church itself cannot well engage in, but through the 
agency of the association they can be tried. A few 
years since, many believed that amusements could be 
used by the church to draw the unconverted within 
reach of the gospel. The church could not place 
billiard tables and chess boards in its lecture rooms, 
merely as an experiment, without compromising its 
character ; but a few associations tried the experiment, 
and now nearly every Christian is satisfied that they 
are not only useless but dangerous in their tendency. 
The trial of such experiments by the association may be 
condemned by those who see the end from the begin- 
ning, but perhaps they may be needed to convince 
others. None are tried except such as church members 
believe may be useful; and sometimes methods which 
many would have condemned without a trial have 
proved to be exceedingly effectual. 

But these are only some of the incidental results 

104 



which have grown out of our work for young men. 
It was no part of the original design of the association 
to show that Christians could work together, but it was 
its design that its own members should work together, 
not for the showing, but for the work's sake. 

It was not the design of the association to teach 
Christians the efficiency of personal effort, but it was 
its design that its members should work earnestly and 
personally for the conversion of young men, and the 
result and its influence and teachings are manifest. 
The association was not organized to demonstrate the 
success of lay and open air preaching, but it adopted 
this method to reach young men, and its applicability 
to the masses was demonstrated. To look after the 
temporal comfort of soldiers in actual service was no 
part of the work designated in its constitution, but 
when an emergency arose which demanded such work, 
the association, being organized and possessing the con- 
fidence of the public, had only to appoint a commission 
and issue its circulars, and funds and supplies poured 
in upon it, and a mighty work was done. And the 
association has not tried a multitude of experiments 
merely because young men are naturally fickle, but it 
has tested various plans while seeking for the best way 
to do its own work, and progress has been made. 

Efforts for the conversion and spiritual and social 
improvements of young men are our specific work, and 
the results of such work are not readily tabulated by 
the statistician, but it is apparent, from the reports of 
conventions, that many thousands of young men are 
brought into the churches every year by the association. 
A great majority of these had drifted beyond the reach 
of every other agency of the church ; they had learned 
to despise the sanctuary, and had fallen into habits of 
dissipation, with no desire to escape and no aspirations 
for a better life; but one or another of these is led by 
the earnest invitation of some young man he has learned 
to respect, to visit the rooms of the association ; he is 

105 



pleased to be treated as a man and follows his friend 
to the prayer meeting. The simple, earnest prayers of 
young men who have been tempted as he has been 
tempted, and who have sinned as he has sinned, but have 
been pardoned as he may be pardoned, touches his 
heart, and by the grace of God he is saved. If left 
among his irreligious associates, with no instruction 
or training for religious work, his spiritual growth 
would not be rapid; but the association is a camp of 
instruction, and every member a recruiting officer; he 
was first reached and awakened by personal effort, he 
understands and appreciates the value of such effort, 
and the association sends him to do for his former 
associates what another did for him. Taught by lessons 
derived from such work, from the Bible class, the 
prayer meeting and the sanctuary, his growth in grace 
and in the knowledge of the Lord is increased, and 
through his efforts the church is built up and the Master 
glorified. Thousands are thus reached every year, and 
trained and added to the working force of the church. 

These and other young men need social elevation 
and intellectual improvement. The association intro- 
duces them to Christian associates, and aids them in 
finding boarding houses conducted by Christian fam- 
ilies, and it provides reading rooms, libraries, lectures, 
and literary classes for their instruction. Proper 
employment is a great protector; it increases a young 
man's self-respect and makes it more difficult to lead 
him astray. One association found places last year for 
five thousand young men, and all city associations assist 
young men in the same way. 

Through the influence of the association merchants 
and others who employ young men have been awakened 
to the necessity and the duty of furnishing them with 
greater facilities for social culture and mental 
development. 

Members of the association, by meeting year after 
year in conventions, devising and discussing plans of 

106 



Christian work, and noting the success of combined 
and earnest effort, are becoming firmer and bolder in 
action. Already our churches are feeling the effects 
of this, and are moving forward with a more manly- 
tread. Mere items, and but few of them, have been 
given here. No attempt has been made to review all 
that has been done, and calculate the combined influence 
of the whole. No summary of grand totals has been 
undertaken ; and yet enough has been seen to show the 
value of the association — the importance of establishing 
and sustaining it as an arm of the church. 



107 



The following articles appeared in the Asso- 
ciation Monthly during 1870, 1871, 1872 and 

1873- 



THE PURPOSE OF OUR SECULAR 
AGENCIES 

Our association is called Christian. Its object is 
the conversion of young men; and this object is the 
most important one that can be undertaken; it is suf- 
ficiently important, certainly, to demand the whole 
energy of every association ; and yet each association 
undertakes to provide for the social and intellectual, 
as well as the spiritual improvement of its members ; 
and this apparent diversion is believed to be wise and 
judicious. Is it so? Doubtless it is. Many who are 
reached by our associations and are brought into the 
membership of our churches are young men who have 
grown up with no religious instruction and but little 
mental culture or social elevation. The associations of 
which they become members and the churches with 
which they unite do what they can to teach them the 
great principles and duties of Christianity. But the 
association, depending exclusively on its members to 
do its work, very clearly recognizes the importance of 
making young men not only Christians, but working 
Christians ; it sees that every converted young man is 
needed to labor for the conversion of others. 

When the early moral, mental and social training of 
young men has been neglected, they need in addition to 
their spiritual culture the disciplining of their intel- 
lectual powers and the improvement of their social 
habits. 

The study of French may not make them any better 
Christians, a knowledge of French may not be needed 
to fit them for the particular variety of work they may 
undertake, but the mental discipline derived from the 

in 



study of French or any other language or literature, 
qualifies them better to discharge any duty that requires 
intellectual effort. The knowledge acquired by pursuing 
these studies may make young men, whether religious 
or irreligious, more useful to themselves, to their 
employers and to society. 

But mental culture is not the whole purpose of our 
secular efforts. These young men must have some 
place and occupation for their evenings. Many of 
them receive but small compensation and are obliged 
to occupy lodgings or live in cheap boarding houses, 
where there are no facilities for spending their even- 
ings profitably or pleasantly. 

The devil takes advantage of this circumstance and 
establishes his association rooms in close proximity 
to such houses to entrap their inmates. Those who have 
no place but cold, dark or dismally lighted bed rooms in 
which to spend their evening hours, are very readily 
enticed away to the warm and well-lighted billiard 
room, theater, concert or drinking saloon. 

The association, with its well-warmed, lighted and 
furnished reading rooms and libraries, its instruction in 
science and literature, its practical and scientific 
lectures, debating societies, music and the like, furnishes 
such young men with refined and Christian associates, 
attractive and intellectual employment, and a comfort- 
able and pleasant place for their evenings. 

Such agencies not only strengthen the intellectual 
powers, but they also improve the social condition and 
the moral character of young men by keeping them 
from the degrading influences of the theater and the 
bar room. They take them away from debasing com- 
panions, practices and influences, and thus keep them 
from sinking lower, and at the same time and by the 
same means they elevate them intellectually, morally 
and socially. This improvement is secured without the 
loss of an hour; and their evenings are made pleasant 
and useful, instead of being worse than wasted. 

112 



Many who are not familiar with our work, and some 
even who are earnest friends of the association, suppose 
that our secular department is designed to be used as 
a decoy to allure unconverted young men within our 
reach, and that while they are nibbling unsuspiciously 
we are sedulously laboring to infuse gospel truths into 
their minds, hoping in this clandestine way to reach 
their hearts and secure their conversion. A few of 
our associations, believing in this allurement theory, 
and thinking that the same devices that are used in 
the drinking saloons would be most likely to be suc- 
cessful in the association rooms, have tried dice, dom- 
inos, billiards and cards. But religion is not, like 
contagious diseases, to be caught simply by bringing 
people in contact with it, especially where it is floating 
as loosely as it is about the dice box and card table, 
located in the rooms of a Young Men's Christian 
Association. Even if unconverted young men could be 
beguiled into our rooms without personal effort, it 
would require personal effort to interest them in the 
subject of personal religion, and Christian young men 
who spend their time manipulating dominos, will hardly 
be prepared to discharge this duty, even when the 
opportunity comes to them. But if they will go out 
with manly, Christian vigor, and converse with these 
young men, as they meet them at their boarding houses 
and places of business, they will reach multitudes 
instead of the one or two or none that will come to 
them at the rooms, and by this same effort they will be 
cultivating their own spiritual strength and Christian 
manliness. But besides the utter inefficiency in Chris- 
tian work of such agents as cards and billiards, there 
are radical objections to them on account of their ten- 
dency to demoralize those who use them. And there 
are objections to the employment of even useful agents 
as decoys, since such employment must necessarily be 
based on deception. 

Our secular machinery then, like theological semi- 

113 



naries, is designed to be used, not directly, but indi- 
rectly for the conversion of the unconverted. It is 
designed in connection with our religious department 
to prepare Christian young men to go out and work, 
not to relieve them from the necessity of working; 
to enable them to use their spare hours for self- 
improvement, that they may be strengthened for a 
life work of Christian effort, not to do their work for 
them; to add physical and intellectual force to their 
Christian zeal, that they may be able to run and speak 
to the unconverted, and not to render them so imbecile 
that unconverted young men go in and out before them 
without concern and without advantage. 

Such being the purpose of our secular agencies, there 
can be no objection to them. Let us see to it then, that 
there are none to the manner of carrying them on. 



BUSINESS MANAGEMENT OF ASSO- 
CIATIONS—DEFECTS AND REMEDIES 

The Young Men's Christian Association requires 
officers able to devise, and no less able to execute. It 
is more exacting than other religious societies in these 
requirements, because the complex character of its 
work increases the difficulties of its management, and 
the chances of its failure. The work of other societies 
is single and well denned; but, while the object of the 
association is always the same, its work varies. What 
is proper for one association may not be necessary or 
even suitable for another, and what is needed at one 
time may be useless at another. Consequently no for- 
mula can be provided for general guidance. Officers, 
then, are required, who are capable of selecting work 
appropriate to their own associations. 

114 



An error in the selection of its work may destroy, 
or at least mar the usefulness of an association ; and 
selecting it merely and only because it has proved 
useful in other localities, is little better than selecting 
or rather adopting it at random. 

But plans may be devised judiciously, and yet fail 
in execution. The duties of the directors of our asso- 
ciations are not ended when resolutions have been 
passed declaring that a certain work is expedient. 
Probably no other organization requires so much 
intelligent vigilance on the part of its officers, to keep 
it in healthy activity. For the work is not performed 
by paid agents. There are no salaries, the continuance 
of which depends on success. There is nothing but the 
work itself to interest or stimulate those who do it. 
The only working force is the members, who receive 
no pay, and over whom the officers have no direct 
control. Managers need much more skill and ability 
to execute plans with such volunteers than with a 
force fully under their control, working, reporting 
and receiving pay regularly. 

But, in addition to ability, knowledge and experience 
are needed. Sometimes men who have never taken 
any part in the work of an association are placed in 
its board of directors for the purpose of interesting 
them in its welfare. Their ignorance enables them to 
waste much time, advocating schemes long ago tried 
and discarded as useless, or explaining with great 
minuteness of detail, plans which they suppose to be 
new, but which, on the contrary, have long been in suc- 
cessful operation. 

It is not often that men should be called to manage 
the business of any association before they have mani- 
fested an interest in it by engaging in its work; mem- 
bers showing a willingness to work should be placed 
on committees and in places of responsibility. If they 
prove their fitness, they may be placed in official 
positions. Associations are occasionally organized by 

US 



inexperienced young men, who labor under the impres- 
sion that they will run of themselves when once started, 
and so they do run, and with commendable speed, but 
in the wrong direction. They run down. 

If a judicious and experienced officer from an old 
association could meet a few times with the directors 
of a young association, it might be an advantage to 
them. 

The successful management of an association con- 
sumes time — and yet men who are so occupied that 
they can never possibly devote a single moment to its 
affairs are persuaded to accept of its highest offices ; 
men who are thus sought are usually men of eminence, 
men who, if they would take an interest in its work, 
and could devote their time and talents to its success, 
would "be of incalculable use to it. But they are not 
expected to do this. It is the influence of their names 
that is desired. 

When an association publishes the names of its 
officers, it certainly assumes, or at least insinuates, that 
these officers are sufficiently interested in the associa- 
tion to know something of its condition, and to perform 
the duties of their office. If the association merely 
uses them as stalking horses, to enable it to reach purses 
that otherwise would be closed against it, then it is 
clearly a case of false pretense, and indicates a defect 
in morals if not in management. 

Clear heads, warm hearts, and strong arms familiar 
with the work, possessing the confidence of the com- 
munity, having time at their disposal to devote to the 
interests of the association, are worth far more than 
mere disembodied names of whatever magnitude. 

But ability, experience, time, eminence, all will avail 
little without money, and unfortunately the difficulty 
of getting it compels the business of many associations 
to be almost altogether financial. Much good may 
doubtless be done without money, but the work of the 
Young Men's Christian Association is one of the things 

116 



that can not be done without it, and the sooner this fact 
is understood the better. 

Money will secure books, papers, pictures, music, 
furniture, fuel and lights, rooms pleasantly located and 
attendants able to keep such rooms in order, and to 
make visitors feel at home in them; and all these are 
needed to interest and instruct young men who have no 
home but the boarding house. 

Still many associations, for want of funds, occupy 
dismal, uninviting rooms. Other associations contract 
debts which they are unable to pay and dishonesty is 
added to incompetency in the count against them. 

If officers are obliged to spend all their time seeking 
funds to keep their associations in existence, its specific 
work will probably be neglected, or work will be 
selected more with reference to the state of the treasury 
than the true purposes of the association. Much of the 
inefficiency of some of our associations might be avoided 
if their officers would make a careful estimate of the 
amount of money needed for the year, and then collect 
it at once, and thus be prepared to go on with their 
work. The habit of collecting money in driblets all 
through the year, whenever a creditor becomes too 
impatient to wait longer, is not highly esteemed by those 
who do business with the association. 

Annual collections in the churches or annual sub- 
scriptions by individuals should be secured if possible. 
Thus subscriptions need not be formal ; an understand- 
ing that the call will be repeated yearly will be sufficient. 
Indiscriminate begging should be avoided, it is not 
very reliable as a source of income, nor very conducive 
to manliness. 

Associations should not be commenced like debating 
clubs, as temporary arrangements, but they should be 
organized as permanent institutions growing out of 
obligations to the Master, to the church, and to the 
unconverted young men, and as the time will not soon 
come when properly managed associations will not be 

117 



needed, it should be the aim of every society to secure 
a house of its own as soon as possible. Moving 
about from one tenement house to another demoralizes 
associations as it does families. It is not merely a 
place for official business that is needed, but pleasant 
homelike rooms where young men may spend their 
unoccupied hours unreached by temptation. It is more 
economical to raise money to build, than to collect, in 
small sums each year, for current expenses. The income 
arising from the members' dues and the rent of the 
lecture hall and stores or offices, to which the first floor 
may be devoted, will meet the expenses of the associ- 
ation, and thus transfer its financial management to a 
business basis. 

These are some of the remedies that might be applied 
with advantage to the business management of associ- 
ations. But to know them is not enough. The servant 
that knew his Master's will and did it not, was consid- 
ered worthy of stripes — a worthiness which was of no 
advantage to his master and no credit to himself. 



"NEVERTHELESS AT THY WORD I 
WILL LET DOWN THE NET" 

All night the nets of Simon and his companions had 
traversed the waters of Gennesaret in vain. In the 
morning the weary and discouraged fishermen brought 
their ships to land, lifted out their nets and prepared to 
abandon further effort. But the voice of Jesus 
recalled them again to their ships ; and trusting in His 
word they once more launched out into the deep, and 
cast their nets into the sea for a draught; "and when 
they had done this they enclosed a great number of 
fishes." 

They did not fail at first from want of skill, for they 

118 



were experienced fishermen ; neither did they fail from 
want of effort, for they toiled all night ; and when 
finally they succeeded it was by no process. They let 
down the nets as before, but they did it trusting, not in 
their own skill, but in the word of the Master. Simon 
said, "Master, we have toiled all the night, and have 
taken nothing ; nevertheless at thy word I will let down 
the net," and their efforts, guided by obedience based on 
faith, were successful. 

There may be associations that have toiled all through 
the past year but have come in at the last hour empty 
handed. They have labored diligently; they have 
sent delegates to conventions far and near, to learn by 
what means others succeeded, and they have tried every 
method that seemed successful in other associations, 
but the seed they have scattered has failed to shoot up 
a single blade. 

They have enlarged their libraries, they have filled 
their reading rooms with periodicals, they have estab- 
lished courses of lectures, and still young men have not 
been attracted to their rooms. They have organized 
open air meetings which have proved so successful in 
other places, but no one has been converted. As a last 
resort they have multiplied prayer meetings, saying, 
Surely God will bless his own appointed means ; but no 
blessing has followed and now perhaps they are 
thoroughly discouraged and ready to disband. But 

have they not lacked one thing, have they not sown 
without faith ? "Oh, no ; they have the greatest confi- 
dence in the means they have used." Yes, but faith 
in one's efforts is not just the kind of faith that moved 
mountains. Simon had faith in his skill, or he would 
not have toiled all night, but he succeeded only when 
he could say, "Master, at thy word I will let down the 
net." Jesus said to his disciples, "Whatsoever ye shall 
ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive" ; but the 
believing, the trust must be not in the asking, not 
in the prayer, but in God. We must labor with 

119 



diligence, and use the best methods we can discover 
to secure the conversion of young men. "But why use 
diligence and methods, if we must trust, not in means, 
but in God ?" Because "faith without works is dead." 
Simon let down his nets — made use of the same means 
he had all through the night ; his work was not dimin- 
ished by his faith ; on the contrary it was increased. 
The Omnipotent One could have filled his ship without 
these means, but He did not ; He could have filled it 
even to sinking without faith, but He would not. So 
He can save young men without the use of means, but 
he does not. So He could save them without faith, but 
He will not. "He that believeth not shall be damned." 
There is not much danger of faith without works in 
our association ; there may be indifference, neither faith 
nor works, but the danger is that we shall put our trust 
in our works, not in God. 

We hear much about the success of certain methods 
in one association, of a certain plan in another ; and in 
our conventions we are asked what branch of our work 
has been a success, and one association reports that a 
revival commenced in its cottage prayer meetings and 
spread through the town ; another that a course of ser- 
mons under its auspices awakened the community and 
added multitudes to its membership. But the faith 
that went up like incense from the little cottage meet- 
ings — the faith that pointed the sermons until they 
smote like arrows between the joints of the harness, is 
not reported. So the minds of the association workers 
are fixed on these different means, and in one and 
another association they are tried with much anxiety 
and labor, and those engaged in the planting and water- 
ing are so intent on their work, that they forget that 
though Paul may plant and Apollos may water, God 
must give the increase, and they forget God, and trust 
in the efforts they are making and the means they are 
using. If an association fails we are told that it was 
from want of funds, or a good leader, or active mem- 

120 



bers, or from trying to do too much, or doing the work 
of other societies, or because it employed a missionary, 
or was destitute of enthusiasm, or because it never had 
the confidence and cooperation of the pastor, but hardly 
ever because it forgot God and tried to walk in its own 
strength. 

Now, in the morning of the year, instead of aban- 
doning their work, will it not be well for discouraged 
associations to call together their members, and look to 
God for a blessing — not on nets hung up to dry, but on 
nets flung far and wide by strong arms and willing 
hearts. Though they have toiled through a long dark 
night, and have accomplished nothing, let them say, 
neverthless, "We will obey the voice of the Lord our 
God," put our trust in Him and go forward. 



APPRENTICE WORK 

[The following paragraphs are taken from an address 
before the Michigan Young Men's Christian Associa- 
tion convention, held at Jackson, January, 1871.] 

The great object of our association is work; and 
this work is to be done, not by machinery of any kind, 
but by each individual member. Our purpose, broadly 
stated, is the improvement of young men, both those for 
whom the work is done, and those who do it. Not 
only the trained and disciplined, but the untrained and 
inexperienced have opportunities, and are under obli- 
gations to engage in this work. 

I am led to say a word concerning our preparatory 
work, and the means of preparation at our command, 
for the two reasons — because many who see us train- 
ing and educating ourselves think we are not engaged in 
the legitimate work of the association ; and also 
because many of our members seem to think that inex- 
perience is a valid excuse for idleness. 

121 



The young man who wishes to learn the carpenter's 
trade works for years to learn it. The young man who 
wishes to become a physician studies medicine a long 
time to prepare himself to practice his chosen pro- 
fession ; and the young man who is inexperienced in 
association work has no better excuse for standing idle 
than the carpenter's apprentice or the medical student. 
Much of our work possesses the twofold character of 
apprentice work. We strive to reach and save others, 
and this very effort increases our own experience and 
growth in grace, and prepares us for still greater 
efficiency. We may feel incompetent, at first, to take 
charge of a prayer meeting ; but we certainly can be 
present, and we can offer a short prayer, add a few 
words of experience or exhortation, assist in singing, 
or at the close speak an earnest word to some careless 
one, or an encouraging word to another who is in 
anxiety or doubt. Any Christian young man can do 
this, and any one who will do it may be reaching 
hearts that never were touched before, while at the 
same time preparing himself to take a more leading 
part in similar devotional services. Much of our work 
also is of the nature of professional study. We labor 
to acquire knowledge for the purpose of qualifying our- 
selves to benefit others. We study God's Word in the 
association Bible class for our own instruction, not alto- 
gether as an end, but as the means of preparing us to 
reach and teach others. So, all through our association 
course, we are doing and learning, learning and doing. 

Our conventions belong almost entirely to the pre- 
paratory department. They are a kind of normal insti- 
tutes. Associations send delegates to conventions to 
learn the best methods of conducting their work, and 
these delegates come back to their associations to teach 
their fellow members, and to put in practice what they 
have learned. One is experienced in open air services. 
He gives us a lesson in the management of such ser- 
vices. Another is familiar with the work in saloons, 

122 



and he teaches us how to work in such places ; and so 
on through the whole series of subjects which may 
come before any convention. 

It is customary for executive committees to select 
such topics as they think the associations need instruc- 
tion on, and select men to open the discussion on these 
topics, and announce both topics and speakers in the 
circular calling the convention. This is right ; but 
there is a temptation just here that sometimes leads 
committees astray. They are tempted to select men 
whose talent or reputation will draw a crowd to the 
convention, but whose knowledge of our associations 
does not qualify them to benefit the delegates much 
in regard to their specific work. If the executive com- 
mittee of the state of Michigan could have announced 
that Ulysses S. Grant would attend the convention as 
a delegate from the Washington association, and would 
open the discussion on the "Origin of the Omnipotent 
Power of the Creator of the Universe," not only a sin- 
gle church, but this city would have been full of dele- 
gates and guests. But would Dr. Grant, however elo- 
quently he might discuss this unsearchable subject, be 
able to help us as much as men less noted, but of larger 
experience in association work? Our teachers must 
certainly first go to school in the association itself, and 
thus become familiar with the practical truths they 
are to impart to others. 



123 



OBJECTS AND AGENCIES OF THE 
YOUNG MEN'S CHRISTIAN ASSO- 
CIATION 

[Read before the New York state convention assem- 
bled at Utica, September 12-14, 1871.] 

The objects of the association are the conversion of 
young men, their spiritual growth, the culture of their 
intellectual powers, and the improvement of their social 
condition. 

The chief agency for effecting the first and constant 
object of the association — the conversion of young men 
— is the direct personal effort of its members with 
individual young men, as they meet them "in the sphere 
of their daily calling." To systematize these efforts, 
and increase their efficiency, associations need rooms 
where their members can meet once a week, or oftener, 
to report what young men they have conversed with, and 
how the gospel message has been received by them; 
to arrange plans for the coming week or day, and to 
ask God's guidance and blessing and the cooperation 
of the Holy Spirit in the hearts of the young men with 
whom they are especially laboring. Young men who 
have been conversed with during the week may be 
invited to attend the devotional exercises of these 
meetings, and may be encouraged to make known their 
feelings, hopes, and desires. This prayer meeting of 
the members should never be neglected, nor suffered to 
become a formal ceremony. These efforts should not 
be left to chance opportunities. Associations should 
have lists of all unconverted young men known to their 
members, and each one of these in succession should 
be labored with earnestly. Each member should select 
one from the list every week, and converse with him. 

124 



and report results at the weekly meeting previous to 
the prayer meeting. Some plan of this kind should be 
pursued by every association with unflagging diligence 
and unsleeping vigilance. This is not optional. Failure 
to do it is neglect of duty. Unconverted young men 
may be reached in other ways also, such as saloon 
meetings, tract distribution, and street preaching. All 
such methods should be used where they can be suc- 
cessfully. 

The association was originally designed to reach 
unconverted young men who come to our cities to find 
employment, and who are waylaid by the tempter on 
the very threshold of city life. Many of these are 
reached and saved by city associations, but many others 
are ruined before the association finds them. Expe- 
rience has taught us that associations are needed in 
every town to secure, if possible, the conversion of these 
young men before they leave their country homes. 
If they come to the city prepared to unite with some 
church and engage in its work, they become acquainted 
with Christian men and women, and are at once sur- 
rounded with safeguards of untold value to them, while 
unconverted young men are too often shut out from 
all society of a refining or elevating tendency. 

The Bible class is an effective agency of the asso- 
ciation. The Bible reveals to man his lost condition 
and the way of salvation, teaches doctrines pure and 
ennobling, and furnishes unerring rules to guide him in 
every emergency ; a knowledge of its truths, then, 
must be invaluable to stimulate the Christian worker, 
to encourage the anxious inquirer, and to awaken the 
careless sinner ; and Bible study must be an agency 
which no Christian association can afford to disregard. 
The association that possesses a Bible, and believes 
that it is the word of God, and yet neglects to maintain 
a Bible class, is more remiss — inasmuch as the life 
to come is of more value than the life that now is — ■ 
than an army would be that should go into action with- 

125 



out arms or ammunition, while its arsenals, and mag- 
azines, and storehouses were full to overflowing, but 
locked and guarded. Literally, we have an open Bible, 
but practically, even to many Christians, it is shut, 
and Ignorance bars the gate. Associations should spare 
no efforts to establish Bible classes, and to induce 
unconverted young men to join them. Thorough Bible 
study is more potent than volumes of argument to turn 
young men away from skepticism, and lead them to 
repentance and faith ; to persuade them as they follow 
Jesus day by day, as He went about doing good, to 
go and do likewise; to show them the foulness of 
sensuality, as they contemplate the purity which God 
requires, which reaches even to the thoughts and 
desires, and to aid them in cultivating a purer literary 
taste, as they compare the sublime descriptions of David 
and Isaiah, and the chaste and terse narratives of the 
evangelists, with the inflated sentimental style so fasci- 
nating to youthful readers of the present day. 

Mission Sunday schools, open air services, cottage 
prayer meetings, and the like, are designed to carry the 
gospel to those in our midst who are not reached by 
other means. They are also valuable training schools 
for young Christians, and as such may be used as 
agencies of the association when its members are not 
engaged in the same or similar work in their respective 
churches. 

The direct purpose of the mission Sunday school 
is to impart religious instruction to children, but the 
young men who teach these children are serving an 
apprenticeship in Christian work, and gaining expe- 
rience in an important field of Christian usefulness. 
Open air preaching is better than a master of elocution 
to teach young men to speak in public. No speaker can 
fall into a prosy, whining, meandering habit when the 
first dull word, the first affected tone, the first rambling 
sentence scatters his audience like autumn leaves. 

Nothing but a manly, forcible, pointed style will hold 

120 



a standing audience casually brought together in the 
market place, or at the street's corner, and not unfre- 
quently earnest words spoken in such places awaken 
consciences that have slept for years undisturbed. 

The cottage prayer meeting trains young men to pray 
in public. John and Jesus taught their disciples how 
to pray, but many follow the traditions of the elders, 
instead of the example of the Master, and make longer 
and more general prayers at the opening of the ordi- 
nary monthly meeting of the association, than Solomon 
did at the dedication of the Temple. The cottage 
prayer meeting does not teach young men to rehearse 
their prayers in their own rooms, or declaim them in 
the prayer meeting, as school boys declaim before their 
classes, but the young men who are detailed to conduct 
such a meeting consult together beforehand, and select 
a subject fitted to the wants of those they are about 
to address. They concentrate their thoughts on this, 
and urge the attention of their audience to it, and 
their prayers naturally have reference to it, and they 
are definite and earnest. Thus, without ever thinking 
of it or perhaps even knowing it, they form the habit 
of adapting their prayers to the circumstances and 
needs of those who are expected to join with them; 
while those who take their first lessons in public prayer 
in the general prayer meeting, or where no particular 
topic is before them, are liable to fall into the habit 
of making long, rambling, lifeless prayers that weary 
the flesh without edifying the spirit. 

Delicacy will not permit personal conversation with 
individuals concerning their spiritual condition to fur- 
nish items for statistical tables or written reports ; 
consequently but little is heard in our conventions and 
in the reports of our associations of our own imme- 
diate work, while so much is said of mission and Sunday 
school work, open air and cottage meetings, jail and 
hospital visiting, that many suppose the maintenance 
of these to be one of the objects of the association. 

127 



We have now seen that the doing such work may be 
one of its agencies, but its legitimate object is work 
for young men, and care should be taken not to assume 
the work of others to the neglect of its own, which is 
also a training school of no mean capacity. Libraries, 
reading rooms, scientific lectures, literary classes, and 
debating societies, are used by the association as agen- 
cies for the intellectual and social improvement of 
young men. There may be towns where all or a part 
of these advantages are furnished by other organi- 
zations ; but in cities and large towns the association 
needs reading, conversation, and class rooms, where 
the young men may spend their evenings and spare 
hours, beyond the reach of temptation ; and it needs 
libraries, lectures, literary classes, and debating soci- 
eties, to furnish young men with opportunities for 
mental culture. Besides, if it can interest and occupy 
them with useful studies, in companionship with Chris- 
tian associates, it will not only improve their mental 
powers, but it will elevate their moral characters, and 
also prevent further debasement by keeping them 
away from the temptations of the theater and the 
concert saloon, and the contaminating influence of 
those who hover about such places. The rooms of the 
association should be pleasantly located, and as com- 
fortably furnished and neatly kept as the parlors and 
reception rooms in our own houses, and they should 
be well lighted and in winter well warmed. But all 
this will avail little unless they are in charge of those 
who can make them seem homelike, and can make 
young men who visit them feel that they are welcome, 
and that they are gentlemen, at least, while they remain 
there. It is useless to fit up rooms like barns, and treat 
our visitors like smallpox patients, if we wish to draw 
young men away from the gay rooms and merry com- 
pany of the drinking and dancing saloons ; and it is 
useless to put them in fine rooms even, and give them 
nothing to stimulate their minds and occupy their 

128 



thoughts, if we expect to keep them away from the 
excitements of the billiard and card table. 

These and such as these are agencies that may be used 
to interest, instruct, elevate, and save young men. 
Many others may be found useful, some in one locality 
and not in another. Each association must choose for 
itself. But whatever methods of work are adopted, 
an earnest working membership will be needed to apply 
them to the objects and purposes of the association. 

Briefly, then, the objects and agencies of the asso- 
ciation are : — 

i. To reach irreligious young men and lead them 
to the Saviour. For this purpose, it uses the Christian 
young men who may chance to be associated with them 
in the counting rooms, work shops, and boarding 
houses, or who may meet them in the ordinary rounds 
of the business. 

2. To improve the spiritual condition of young men, 
both the religious and the irreligious. And it calls 
them together to study the Bible, that they may learn 
their duty to God, to each other and to themselves. 
And it sends out Christian young men — if they are not 
already employed — both the experienced and the inex- 
perienced, to labor for the salvation and spiritual 
advancement of others, and, at the same time, to 
promote their own growth in grace, and qualify them- 
selves for greater efficiency in the Master's harvest 
field. And, 

3. To elevate young men intellectually and socially. 
And it furnishes rooms, lectures, books, teachers, and 
Christian companions, and bids young men come and 
be welcome. 

The association is consolidating into a permanent 
institution, and it behooves us to see that its work is 
well defined, and its instruments are fitted to its pur- 
pose, and that its workmen are moving forward with 
no laggard step. Its responsibilities are great. God 
has blessed and prospered it. Men of wealth and 

129 



influence, in the church and out of it, have contributed 
money freely in many places to furnish it with suitable 
buildings. And now to show that it is worthy of this 
liberality, and to show its gratitude to God for thus 
inclining the hearts of these men, it must lay hold of 
the work it is pledged to do with no uncertain grasp. 



CHRISTIANITY CALLS YOUNG MEN TO 
USEFUL ACTIVITY 

After God has given young men strength of muscle 
and of mind, after society has furnished them with the 
means of mental culture and social elevation, and after 
they have been taught by the Spirit, and have become 
disciples of Him who went about doing good, they 
owe a debt which idleness cannot repay. Strength 
in repose may furnish beautiful models for the artist, 
but strength in action is what the necessities of the 
world demand. The world cannot afford to keep 
strength like a wax figure in a glass case, as a toy to 
be looked at or a specimen for esthetic study. But 
mere action will not satisfy the requirements of God 
or the world. The young man who uses his strength 
for no higher purpose than to draw smoke through 
rolls of tobacco leaves, or whose activity culminates 
in the manly occupation of waxing his mustache, or 
tying his cravat, counts no more in the progress of 
Christianity or civilization even, than the wooden 
Indian that stands at the door of the cigar shop. John 
said : "I have written unto you, young men, because 
ye are strong, and the word of God abideth in you, 
and ye have overcome the wicked one." These young 
men were not only strong, but their strength had pur- 
sued and overtaken a purpose, it had overcome the 
wicked one ; and now, as then, aggressive work requires 

130 



not only strength, but useful action. To the rich young 
man who inquired what he should do to inherit eternal 
life, Jesus said : "Sell whatsoever thou hast, and give 
to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven; 
and come, take up the cross and follow me." Here, 
toil, self-denial, and care for others were enjoined on 
a model young man with a positiveness which admitted 
of no appeal. Neither great possessions nor high moral 
character could exempt him from the duty or even the 
drudgery of personal usefulness. Can any young man, 
with this example before him, and the world's harvest 
field around him, suffer his strength to rust out in the 
storehouse of indolence, or wither away in saloons of 
pleasure, and say, "There is nothing to do"? 

" 'Nothing to do ! ' thou Christian soul, 
Wrapping thee round in thy selfish stole; 
Off with the garments of sloth and sin, 
Christ, thy Lord, hath a kingdom to win." 

— Illustrated Christian Weekly. 



DUTY OF ASSOCIATION LEADERS 

The conversion of young men is the purpose for 
which the Young Men's Christian Association was 
organized. The legitimate work of the association is 
work which tends to accomplish this purpose. This 
work may be divided into religious and secular, and 
the religious may be subdivided into that designed to 
promote religious culture and spiritual growth, and that 
which has reference to the direct, individual, personal 
efforts of the members for the conversion of young 
men associated with them in business and social life. 
This latter subdivision is the distinctive work of the 
association, and the life of the association is doubly 
pledged for its performance ; for if it neglects to do 
this, it neglects a work which justly claims the support 

131 



of every Christian ; and if it fails to do this work, 
it gives an opportunity to question whether it does 
anything worthy of support., and those who are ready 
to profess unbounded interest in any enterprise for 
the good of their fellows, if at the same time the}- can 
show that its bad management renders it undeserving 
of their aid., will not be slow to use this opportunity. 

When young men become members of the association 
they virtually pledge themselves to do this work; 
and when members become office bearers, the) - virtually 
pledge themselves to direct and oversee this work. 
Still, a large proportion of the members fail to do it ; 
some, because they have no taste for Christian work, 
or because they have a congenial proclivity to idleness. 
But many who are standing idle are not doing so from 
choice. They are read}-, or at least willing, to work. 
They possess potential energy, and are waiting for some 
animating force to develop it into actual energy, and 
some master hand to guide it to results which will 
honor Him who redeemed them. 

The Lord of the harvest field is unwilling to suffer 
any power to remain latent or lie dormant after it has 
been consecrated to His sen-ice, for the harvest truly 
is great, and even- workman is needed. 

Many of these young men have but recently forsaken 
the service of the world ; under their old master they 
acquired the habit of laboring with diligence and ear- 
nestness ; it is important to initiate them into the sen-ice 
of their new master before this habit becomes enfeebled 
from lack of use. 

When the association received these young Christians 
into membership, it assumed the charge of their train- 
ing and employment during their apprenticeship, and 
yet in many associations they are unemployed, and 
the work languishes, and the young men are lost. 
While even- year associations, disabled with rust, ask 
our conventions to devise some plan to rouse their 
unoccupied members to action, or at least to pass reso- 

132 



lutions of lamentation over their inaction ; officers and 
directors seeming to remember that it is the duty of the 
members to work, but to forget that it is their own duty 
to direct and supervise both the work and the workmen. 

It is the duty of our property holding citizens to pay 
taxes ; but government understands human nature too 
well to leave any citizen to decide how much he will 
pay, and the time and mode of payment. 

Those who undertake to manage the religious affairs 
of their respective associations need a clear conception 
of the work to be done, and time and executive ability 
to do it. 

Haphazard, disjointed management can accomplish 
nothing but failure, a result hardly worthy the ambition 
of young men. A sudden jerk of enthusiasm, and then 
a pause like a boy watching his top to see how long it 
will spin, is not the kind of motor power required for 
aggressive work, especially where the power of evil is 
the opposing force. Inefficiency in conducting the 
religious effort of an association often arises from inad- 
equate support on the part of the community. The 
officers consume their time discussing financial ques- 
tions ; the most able of them are occupied, almost 
entirely, collecting money, and a want of means often 
compels them to have regard to salaries where ability 
only should be considered. Purely religious work is 
quiet and unobtrusive, and officers sometimes feel 
compelled to engage in work that will arrest public 
attention in order to awaken interest and secure funds 
to keep the association from bankruptcy. But no 
community can afford to suffer the religious enterprise 
of its association to stagnate from such causes, and no 
association should permit its religious work to be 
neglected or prosecuted incidentally for any reason. 
It should be practically, as it is really, the primary work 
in every association, and its management should be 
entrusted to men of superior executive talents, and 
hearts devoted to the spiritual welfare of young men. 

133 



They should not be expected to do the work of the 
association as substitutes for the members, but they 
should see that every member has work to do, and 
directions for doing it. Neither should they attempt 
to organize elaborate plans that tell well in annual 
reports, and nowhere else. But they should be able 
to organize and execute plans that will tell well on the 
lives and souls of young men. They should know 
exactly what their work is, how to do it, and what they 
have to do it with. They should study the character 
of each member of the association personally, and give 
each one, individually, some specified work to do, and 
require him to report at an appointed time. They 
should, if possible, have an active member in every 
boarding house occupied by young men, and in every 
store and manufactory where young men are employed. 
In this way they would bring out the whole working 
force, and teach every member to work intelligently, 
and multitudes would be reached and saved who other- 
wise will perish. 

Some may say this is all very good in theory; yes, 
but it is much better in practice, and if any one doubts 
it, let him try it. 

It is the duty, then, of the officers, managers, and 
leaders of our associations to labor and teach every 
member to labor, personally and systematically, for the 
conversion of young men. But however important 
this work may be, it is the privilege of no officer, 
manager, or leader to see it do itself, of its own accord, 
even though spurred on annually by the resolutions of 
conventions. — Christian at Work. 



134 



BEWARE LEST YE FALL 

The objects of our association are the social, intel- 
lectual, and spiritual good of young men. Whether old 
or young, ignorant or refined, man seeks the compan- 
ionship of his fellows, and those with whom he asso- 
ciates exert a powerful influence over him. Our asso- 
ciation makes use of this natural tendency to protect 
young men from the snares of the tempter. It sur- 
rounds them with Christian young men, thus not only 
giving them companions, but companions who will lead 
them in the ways of truth and holiness. It offers 
them the sympathy, the fellowship, and the enjoyment 
men are accustomed to find in each other's society, 
but sympathy, fellowship, and enjoyment elevated and 
purified by divine grace. If they are strangers, it 
assists them to find suitable boarding places and employ- 
ment, and does what it can to aid and interest them. 
But it does not do this simply that they may spend their 
evenings with pleasant associates, instead of spending 
them alone in their solitary rooms, nor to save them 
the trouble of finding boarding houses and employment 
for themselves, but to shield them from companion- 
ships and influences that will drag them down to ruin. 
It seeks the social good of young men by laboring to 
improve their social condition, not for the sake of the 
improvement only, but because the improvement and 
the means used to secure it may keep them from sink- 
ing into utter debasement. 

For the intellectual good of young men, the asso- 
ciation provides libraries, reading rooms, lectures, and 
classes for instruction. But it furnishes these not 
merely as educational advantages, but also as pro- 
tections against evil influences ; not simply to qualify 
young men to fill more important stations and com- 

135 



mand higher salaries, but also to give them safe occu- 
pation for their spare hours. While the association 
can keep young men interested in useful studies, it can 
keep them away from the theater, the gambling house, 
and the drinking saloon. For the spiritual good of 
young men, the association sends out its members to 
speak to them words of Christian love, and to ask God 
to bless these words to the salvation of their souls. 
The spiritual good of young men is the chief object 
of the association, and whatever else it may do, it will 
fail disastrously if it neglects this ; and it embraces 
not only the conversion of young men, but their growth 
in grace and their training in Christian work. For 
this purpose, the association sends them out to conduct 
open air services on the corners of the streets, and 
prayer meetings in cottages, jails, and hospitals, to labor 
in mission Sunday schools, and to lend a helping hand 
wherever there is work to be done for Christ's sake. 

It is our mission to keep young men from falling, as 
well as to rescue those who are already down, and 
to do this not only by protecting them in the day of 
temptation, but by implanting in their hearts principles 
that will enable them, with God's help, to stand when 
the evil day comes. 



NEED OF A CLEAR COMPREHENSION 

OF THE PURPOSES OF THE 

ASSOCIATION 

The aim of the association should be thoroughly 
understood by all who undertake to do its work or to 
direct its workmen. This is necessary, because unde- 
viating progress cannot be secured without a clear view 
of the object pursued. It is necessary, also, because 
it is possible for earnest Christian workers not only to 
impede the progress of an association but to compromise 

136 



its very existence, even while honestly striving to 
increase its efficiency. Our distinctive work is not 
mere ordinary, general Christian work, such as hold- 
ing cottage prayer meetings, maintaining mission Sun- 
day schools, conducting open air services, and the like, 
but the association engages in such work for the purpose 
of doing so much more than would otherwise be done, 
and for the purpose also of training its members in 
the general management of Christian work, thus 
making them executive instead of mere passive Chris- 
tians ; for executive faculties, like all others, if left 
unexercised and undeveloped, wither into permanent 
imbecility. And when those who are imperfectly 
acquainted with the design of the association see it 
thus engaged, they may suppose this extra work and 
this training embrace its whole purpose ; and if they 
attempt to organize associations they organize them 
for work of this kind. But if this is their only work, 
it is not easy to see that they are needed at all, if 
the church keeps its young men judiciously employed; 
and if they are only needed because the church fails 
to do the work it was ordained to do, it is plain that 
their very existence is a stigma upon the church. 
Associations organized or managed on this false basis 
can hardly count on riches and honor, or length of 
days, for the church must be more divine than it has 
ever claimed to be, or more imbecile than it was ever 
accused of being, if it continue long to furnish men and 
means to sustain an institution that bases its existence 
and claims for aid on nothing but the neglect of the 
church to do its duty. Thus, the ignorance of its true 
purpose, on the part of the founders, managers, or 
members of an association, may destroy, or at least 
cripple, its influence, and so deprive a community of 
its usefulness perhaps for many years. It is important, 
then, that agents who may be employed to organize 
associations, superintendents or secretaries who under- 
take to supervise association work, and active members, 

1.37 



who are the day laborers in the association field, should 
know what the association designs to do., and should be 
able to distinguish its specific from its mere auxiliary 
work. But this knowledge is neither the inheritance 
of instinct nor the gift of inspiration; like other know- 
ledge it must be acquired. To aid us in its acquisition 
we have neither training school nor text book. The 
proposed conference of general secretaries may become, 
in some measure, a substitute for the former, if it 
assume the character of a normal school or teachers' 
institute, meeting for a few weeks every year, to qualify 
our secretaries for teachers as well as superintendents; 
and if it begin with denning the purpose of the asso- 
ciation and then its methods of work. Much time has 
been wasted in our associations and conventions by 
studying plans before purposes; by trying to define the 
how before the what. And the Association Monthly 
may, to some extent, take the place of text books ; but 
to do this it must be studied as a text book, and not 
merely read as a newspaper. For example; something 
more than a year ago, a certain association abandoned 
the evangelical test of membership. The course of 
that association since has been like the course of a 
bob-tailed kite — erratic but ever downward — and today 
it is discussing, not how to work, but how to disband. 
The reports of this association, read merely as news, 
are valueless ; but studied as a lesson, they teach the 
great importance of the evangelical test. But though 
our educational facilities are not what we need, and our 
knowledge of association principles is not what it 
should be, yet our progress for the last few years has 
been commendable. Ten years ago there were hardly 
three such papers in all the literature of the association 
as the three in the last number of the Association 
Monthly, by Dr. Burns. Sheriff Thomas, and R. S. 
Holmes. 



138 




DR. VERRANUS MORSE 
1901. 



I am still speaking to you young men. 



PROGRESS OF THE ASSOCIATION 
MOVEMENT SINCE 1875 



The first twenty-five years of the Young Men's 
Christian Association in America has been called 
its formative period ; its second twenty-five years 
may very justly be called its performative period ; 
the history of these periods shows that the titles 
have been well earned. 

The American Young Men's Christian Asso- 
ciations were organized to do special work for 
the spiritual improvement of young men in great 
cities, together with auxiliary work for their 
intellectual, social and physical improvement. 
But the first convention of the American asso- 
ciations which met in less than three years after 
the organization of the Montreal and Boston 
associations, adopted the following resolution : — 

"That this general convention of associations 
recommend to the various local associations the 
establishment of at least one mission Sunday 
school to be the agent and creature of the asso- 
ciation, also of adult Bible classes where practic- 
able, to form the nucleus of enlarged future mis- 
sionary efforts of the same and kindred character 

139 



among the masses of the population of our large 
cities." 

The same failure to understand the purpose 
and method of work that made the adoption of 
this resolution possible, led to much waste of 
time in the discussion and testing of different 
kinds and methods of work in the early years of 
the association. 

But when the associations became convinced 
that having assumed the duty of working for the 
spiritual improvement of young men they were 
not privileged to shirk that duty, but that there 
was much work additional to their own work 
for young men in cities, that they might do for 
those who were still uncared for by other organ- 
izations, then without abandoning work for 
young men in cities but rather increasing it, both 
in quantity and in methods, they extended a help- 
ing hand to others, and subsequently whole 
classes came into the association organization, 
bringing their work with them, and much has 
since been done for them and by them under the 
auspices of the association. 

The college students came and the words "per- 
sonal religion" have been whispered in the ears 
of thousands of college students, and personal 
religion has entered the hearts of many, and sent 
them to preach the gospel on this continent and 
in heathen lands. The railroad men came, and 
multitudes of railroad employees have been 
brought out of nature's darkness into the mar- 

140 



velous light of the gospel, and the light of the 
gospel in the hearts of railroad employees has 
saved hundreds of railroad passengers from a 
cruel death, and millions of dollars to railroad 
companies. The association has forestalled much 
of its own work by laying its hands on the boys 
and guiding their feet into the narrow path of life 
instead of waiting, before striving to reach them, 
until they became young men and were forced by 
vile institutions or evil influences into the broad 
road that leads to destruction. The temporal 
and eternal welfare of the men in the army and 
navy has been cared for and much also has been 
done to mitigate the suffering incident to the exi- 
gencies of war. The colored men and the Indians 
came not empty-handed, but bringing their asso- 
ciations with them. The young men of other 
continents upon the foreign mission field uttered 
their Macedonian cry and such a response was 
given as has resulted in association brotherhoods 
in India, China, Japan, South America and 
Africa. 

The international organization or polity was 
developed from the recommendation adopted by 
the convention composed of thirty-seven dele- 
gates from nineteen associations which met in 
Buffalo, June 7, 1854. 

It provided for annual conventions and a cen- 
tral executive committee, a working minority of 
whose members should be resident in one place, 
the remainder being distributed in various parts 

141 



of the country. And it denned the duties and the 
disabilities of the executive committee: — 

"This committee being ng>t a controlling power 
but an agency." And it assured the authority 
of the several associations by providing that 
neither the convention nor the committee should 
have authority to commit any local association to 
any proposed plan of action until approved by 
such association, nor to assess any pecuniary rate 
upon them without their consent. 

The instructions framed by the Buffalo conven- 
tion for the guidance of the central executive 
committee which it provided for, have been fol- 
lowed up by additional instructions from subse- 
quent conventions and the associations still enjoy 
the independence that was guaranteed to them 
by the first convention. 

These original instructions contain a sample of 
the cautious wording which held the associations 
of the North and the South together during the 
exciting days before the w T ar, and which is today 
binding associations of all lands in a world's con- 
ference of Young Men's Christian Associations. 
And this confederation is a preview of the 
world's confederation of Christians joyfully 
marching on together to the glad millennial day. 

On the 15th of January, 1855, the conditions 
prescribed by the Buffalo convention, "the rati- 
fication of the action of- the convention by twenty- 
two associations," having been complied with, the 
Young Men's Christian Confederation of the 

142 



United States and British Provinces and the cen- 
tral executive committee came into existence. 

The convention which met in Chicago in 1863 
dissolved the confederation, and the present plan 
of representation and organization was adopted, 
and has since been in force. 

The international organization of Young 
Men's Christian Associations of North America 
as now constituted is composed of associations of 
young men of different classes, conditions and 
races, scattered over the United States and Bri- 
tish Provinces. It held conventions annually 
from 1854 to 1877. Since then conventions have 
met biennially, the associations of the United 
States and British provinces being invited to send 
delegates. The International Committee is the 
executive agency of this convention and has cor- 
responding members in every state and province, 
and visiting secretaries in various places in the 
United States and British Provinces and a few 
in foreign countries. Each association has its 
own constitution and officers, and is governed by 
laws of its own enactment or adoption, and em- 
ploys its own general secretaries. Each state 
and province has its own executive committee 
which has its own secretaries and corresponding 
members, and each association is invited to send 
delegates to the conventions of its own state or 
province, while the members of the associations 
pay a small annual fee for the support of the 
associations of which they are members. The 

143 



funds needed for the great work of the Interna- 
tional, state and provincial committees are ob- 
tained principally by voluntary contributions, and 
there are no offices of honor of any pecuniary 
value, or any emoluments beyond the wages of 
the employees of the executive committees and 
associations. 

A resolution adopted by the International con- 
vention which met in Cleveland, May 22, 1881, 
directed : — 

"That the committee be requested to take 
measures to secure the incorporation of the 
International Young Men's Christian Associa- 
tion." 

The following is a copy of the Act of Incorpo- 
ration which was obtained: — 

An Act to Incorporate the International Commit- 
tee of Young Men's Christian Associations, 
Passed April 16, 1883. 

The people of the state of New York, represented in 
Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows : Section 1 — 
Cephas Brainerd, William E. Dodge, Jr., Morris K. 
Jesup, Robert R. McBurney, Elbert B. Monroe, Moses 
Taylor Pyne, James Stokes, Cornelius Vanderbilt, Ben- 
jamin C. Wetmore, John S. Maclean, Samuel H. Blake, 
Russell Sturgis, Jr., Henry M. Moore, William G. War- 
den, James McCormick, H. Kirk Porter, H. Thane 
Miller, Turlington W. Harvey, Cyrus H. McCormick, 
Jr., Thomas Cochran, Jr., George S. Brown, William P. 
Munford, Joseph Hardie, Augustine T. Smythe, John 
L. Wheat, Frank L. Johnston, William T. Hardie and 
Alexander Guthrie, being the persons designated for 

144 



the purpose by the International Convention of the 
Young Men's Christian Associations of the United 
States and British Provinces in accordance with a 
resolution to that effect of the Convention of the said 
Young Men's Christian Associations, passed May 27, 
1881, and their associates and successors in office, are 
hereby constituted a Body Corporate and Politic by the 
name of the International Committee of Young Men's 
Christian Associations, for the purpose of establishing 
and assisting Young Men's Christian Associations, and 
generally to promote the spiritual, intellectual, physical 
and social well-being of young men, in accordance with 
the aims and methods of Young Men's Christian Asso- 
ciations in connection with the said Convention. 

Sec. 2. — The management and disposition of the 
affairs of the corporation shall be vested in a Committee 
composed of the individuals named in the first Section 
of this Act as incorporators and their associates and 
successors in office, the said board to be composed of 
not less than twenty-seven members, one-third of whom 
shall go out of office, and one-third be elected, at each 
of the said International Conventions of the Young 
Men's Christian Associations of the United States and 
British Provinces by the said Convention ; and if any 
vacancy shall occur during the interim of the said Con- 
ventions, it shall be filled by a majority of the votes of 
the remaining members of the Committee resident in 
the State of New York. 

Sec. 3. — The said Corporation shall possess the gen- 
eral power, right, and privilege, and be subject to the 
provisions contained in Title 3 of Chapter 18 of the first 
part of the Revised Statutes of the State of New York, 
and the Acts amendatory thereof, and supplementary 
thereto, so far as the same are in force and applicable, 
and in accordance with this Act. 

Sec. 4. — The said Corporation shall in law be capable 
of taking, receiving and holding absolutely and in trust 
for its general uses and purposes, and for any particular 

145 



department of its work, and for any particular Asso- 
ciation, by gift, devise, bequest, grant or purchase, real 
and personal property, and, with the consent of the 
Board of Trustees herein provided for, of letting, leas- 
ing and conveying the same, and shall also have power 
with the like consent to issue bonds and secure the 
same by mortgages upon its real estate and its improve- 
ment; the consent of the said Trustees to be evidenced 
by affixing their seal to the instruments of conveyance 
and bonds and mortgages, and causing the same to be 
signed by their President and Treasurer, in pursuance 
of a resolution of their Board to that effect. And the 
real estate of this Corporation shall not be liable for 
any debt or obligation of the Corporation, unless the 
same shall have been contracted with the approval of 
the said Board of Trustees. 

All devises and bequests, however, to the said Corpo- 
ration shall be subject to the provisions of the "Act of 
the Legislature relating to Wills," passed April 13, i860, 
and the Acts amendatory thereto. 

Sec. 5. — The said Corporation shall have the power to 
make and adopt a constitution, by-laws, rules, and reg- 
ulations for the government of its business, the man- 
agement of its affairs, the choice, powers, and duties of 
its officers and agents, and from time to time to repeal 
or alter such constitution, by laws, rules and regula- 
tions. 

Sec. 6. — All real property which shall be given to or 
acquired by this Corporation, and all gifts and bequests 
of money to be held in trust, shall be held and managed 
by a board of Fifteen Trustees, a majority of whom 
shall constitute a quorum for the transaction of all 
business. The Chairman of the said International Com- 
mittee shall, for the time, be ex-officio a member of the 
said Board of Trustees. Robert Fulton Cutting, 
Bowles Colgate, Charles Lanier, John S. Bussing, John 
C. Havemeyer, John Noble Stearns, Samuel Colgate, 
James Talcott, James Carey Thomas, Washington C. 

146 



DePauw, Henry J. Willing, Dan P. Eells, Charles W. 
Lovelace, Jonathan N. Harris and the Chairman of the 
said International Committee are hereby created such 
Board of Trustees and whenever a vacancy shall occur 
in the said Board of Trustees, the same shall be filled 
by a majority vote of those remaining; and the income 
which the said Board of Trustees shall receive from the 
property under their management and the said property 
shall be devoted to the purposes of this Act and for no 
other purpose, and, so long as the said International 
Committee shall so expend the same, the Board of Trus- 
tees shall pay over to the Treasurer of the said Cor- 
poration the income of the property of this Corporation 
so managed by them. 

After this exposition of the slender machinery 
with which the first convention put the interna- 
tional organization in motion and the precarious 
conditions on which it started, a survey of its 
complex and abundant machinery after forty- 
seven years of expansion and multiplication 
makes it less difficult to comprehend the follow- 
ing statistics of the associations and to appreciate 
the magnitude of the work which they represent. 



147 



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As commentary on these figures and on the 
situation of the North American association 
movement at the end of the nineteenth century, 
I close this volume with the following report of 
the International Committee submitted to the 
international convention which met at Grand 
Rapids, Michigan, May 25-28, 1899: — 

Biennial Report of the International Committee. 

The International Committee presents the following 
as its twenty-third report : 

This report, and the biennial reports of the secre- 
taries and corresponding members of the Committee, 
together with the Year Books of 1898 and 1899, give 
a summary statement of the work of the Committee and 
of the condition of the associations since the Mobile 
convention in 1897. 

The Present Association Situation. 

The following summary shows, so far as figures can 
show, the present situation as compared with that of 
two years ago : 

1899. 1897. Number and Membership. 1899. 1897. 



1,341 (1,362) Associations have sent in 
reports; 1,429 (1,429) are 
in existence. 

1,233 (1,255) of these report an aggregate 

membership of 228,568 (248,734 

1,184 (1,202) report an active member- 
ship of 108,532 (119,764) 

1,054 (1,089) report the number of mem- 
bers serving on commit- 
tees 34,079 (37,001) 

149 



Financial. 
344 (330) Associations own buildings 

valued at $19,847,930 (§17,707,950) 

92 (95) own other real estate val- 
ued at 1,270,550 (1,357,100) 

Total property in buildings 

and other real estate $21,118,480 ($19,065,050) 

Deduct debt 4,755,165 (4,529,220) 

Net property in buildings 

and other real estate $16,363,315 ($14,535,830) 

77 (98) report building funds paid 

in, amounting to 278,970 (335,210) 

12 (14) report library funds paid in. 127,855 (139,650) 

7 (8) report educational funds 

paid in, amounting to 100,700 (101,190) 

41 (43) report other endowment 
funds paid in, amounting 

to 676,630 (606,170) 

3 (7) report special funds paid in, 

amounting to 37,415 (43,490) 

836 (869) report furniture valued at.. 1,279,150 (1,215,918) 
652 (710) report libraries of 50 or 

more volumes, valued at. 441,045 (454,950) 

International Committee, 

permanent fund 16,192 (7,017) 

Sidney Dillon Fund (in trust 
for Union Pacific railroad 
associations) 25,000 (25,000) 

Total net property $19,347,272 ($17,464,425) 

1899. 1897. 1899. 1897. 

91 (102) report building funds 

pledged 761,550 (971,320) 

3 (8) report endowment funds 

pledged 2,500 (13,000) 

1 (2) reports special funds 

pledged 2,000 (12,000) 

1 (0) reports library fund 

pledged 2,000 

959 (1,025) report cash paid out for 

current expenses 2,453,778 (2,402,162) 

31 (33) state and provincial conven- 
tions were held in 1898 
(1896). at which annual ex- 
penses for state and pro- 
vincial work were report- 
ed, amounting to 133,310 (108,902 

ISO 



The International Commit- 
tee reports expenses for 
home work for 1898 (1896), 
including $80,946 for ex- 
penses of Army and Navy 
work 163,773 (72,976) 

The International Commit- 
tee reports expenses for 
foreign work for 1898 (1896) 28,872 (19,415) 

General Secretaries. 

1,275 (1,251) men are at work as general secretaries and other 
paid officers of local associations and of state and 
international committees, and 44 (59) other such 
positions are temporarily vacant. 

Physical, Intellectual, and Social. 

524 (561) report attention to physical training ; 478 (512) 
through gymnasiums, and 324 (344) through ath- 
letic games, sports, and outings. 

376 (345) report 57,814 (52,672) different men using physical 
means. 

567 (676) report a total average daily 

attendance at rooms of. . . 77,378 (86,792) 

767 (840) report reading rooms. 

656 (711) report libraries of 50 or 
more volumes, containing 
volumes to the number of 474,685 (506,659) 

244 report 332,420 volumes 

drawn. 

162 (177) report literary societies, 
with a total average at- 
tendance of 3,701 (4,720) 

605 (740) report 3,801 (5,173) lectures and entertainments. 

909 (944) report 4,902 (4,825) sociables. 

324 (374) report 1,831 (2,420) educational classes, in 1,815 
(2,366) of which 24,085 (25,269) different students 
were enrolled. 

Religious. 

Meetings for Young Men Exclusively. 

723 (624) associations report 29,547 
(24,661) Bible class ses- 
sions, 29,334 (24,597) of 
which had a total attend- 
ance of 356,227 (342,722) 

151 



288 (341) report 7,794 (9,011) Bible 

training class sessions, 

7,732 (9,004) of which had 

a total attendance of 63,561 (83,339) 

1,047 (1,072) report 58,197 (66,095) young 

men's meetings, 57,074 

(65,178) of which had a 

total attendance of 2,538,504 (2,924,247) 

281 (238) in educational institutions 

report 1 ,996 (1,733) foreign 

missionary meetings, 

which had a total attend- 
ance of 66,177 (60,325) 

Observance of the Days of Prayer. 

691 (802) observed the week of prayer for young men in 

November, 1898 (1896). 
320 (290) student associations observed the day of prayer for 

students, 1899 (1897). 

Miscellaneous. 

338 (360) report 13,365 (10,951) situations secured. 
486 (532) have women's auxiliaries or committees. 

1899. 1897. Departments. 

133 (118) railroad departments and associations report: 137 

(125) are in existence. 
125 (118) of these employ 168 (133) general secretaries and 
assistants. 
97 (85) railroad departments report 12,718 (18,185) visits to 
sick and injured. 
105 (90) railroad departments report 369,820 (322,024) baths 
given. 
56 (40) railroad departments report rest rooms used 

248,143 (161,079) times. 
22 (15) railroad departments report lunch rooms used 

745,727 (513,839) times. 
18 (12) railroad departments report temporary hospitals 

used 820 (392) times. 
70 (68) railroad departments report 87,390 (86,419) volumes 
drawn from their libraries. 
504 (443) student associations report: 542 (475) are in exis- 
tence, exclusive of the Indian and colored men's 
departments. 

152 



27 (21) student associations employ 27 (21) general secre- 
taries. 
61 (51) colored men's associations report: 46 (41) of which 
are located in schools and colleges; 65 (58) are in 
existence. 
5 (8) colored associations employ 5 (8) general secretaries. 

44 (46) Indian associations are in existence, 8 (b) are in 
Indian schools. 
296 (338) associations report definite work for boys. 



A review of these figures shows little apparent pro- 
gress of the association movement as a whole during the 
past two years. In some items the figures are smaller 
than those of two years ago, but not in any case very 
much smaller. A larger decrease might have been 
expected as a result of the hard times so long prevalent. 
The associations have certainly exhibited remarkable 
staying power, when their voluntary character and 
changing membership are taken into account. On the 
other hand, there are indications of the continuance of 
that growth and development in individual associations 
which has been the most marked feature of progress 
for a decade or more, such as the increase in the number 
of buildings from 330 to 344, and of total valuation of 
buildings from nearly eighteen to nearly twenty mil- 
lion dollars. The total property of the associations in 
buildings and other real estate amounts to over twenty- 
one millions. 

The current expenses of the 959 associations reporting 
their expenses are nearly two and a half millions, 
exceeding by fifty thousand the expenditures of 1897. 
The number of employed officers has increased from 
1,251 to 1,275. 

To these features of growth may be added the 
increased number of associations reporting Bible 
classes, with an increase of total attendance. 

In the railroad, student, and colored departments 
there has also been decided progress. 



-^3 



Work in the Army and Navy. 

But the most signal feature of progress and the most 
remarkable evidence of the vital force of the association 
movement has been the work accomplished during 1898 
in the army and navy. This work, under the name of 
the Army and Navy Christian Commission of the Inter- 
national Committee, extended a helpful influence to over 
two hundred and fifty thousand soldiers and sailors, 
being a larger number of young men outside of the 
membership of the associations than the aggregate mem- 
bership, active and associate, of the whole brotherhood. 

When this remarkable ministry to young men is taken 
into account, it may be asserted confidently that within 
no two years have the American associations exerted so 
wide and blessed an influence among young men on this 
continent as during the period since the Mobile Con- 
vention. 

To this work in the army and navy the associations 
were summoned by the outbreak of the war with Spain 
in April, 1898. 

Two considerations united to make this work obli- 
gatory upon your Committee : — 

1. The precedent of the Civil War, during which the 
associations organized the Christian Commission. 
This precedent created a general expectation that the 
associations would again undertake similar beneficent 
effort. The matter was forcibly brought to the atten- 
tion of the Committee by one of its members at its 
regular meeting held April 14, 1898, eight days before 
the President's first call for volunteers, when a sub- 
committee was directed "to consider the obligation of 
the Committee to care for the interests of our soldiers 
and sailors." 

2. This expectation was further strengthened by the 
good work which had been accomplished by a number 
of the state and provincial organizations in the summer 
camps of the militia. In some cases this work had 

1 54 



been carried on for over ten summers with such excel- 
lent results as to commend it widely to the approval of 
both officers and soldiers. 

During the same month of April, as the soldiers gath- 
ered at the call of the President in the various state 
camps, the state organizations, following the precedent 
of these summer camps, opened tents for hospitable 
welcome, so that the soldier on his arrival, and with the 
desire to write his first letter home, became acquainted 
with the association tent as a pleasant and serviceable 
place of resort. 

But the state camp could hold the soldier only for a 
short time. His destination was the larger United States 
camps, where the whole army was being gathered. On 
the basis of the good work which the association had 
demonstrated it could do in summer camps, the Inter- 
national Committee applied to the War Department and 
the General of the Army for authorization to establish 
association tents and workers in every camp, and as far 
as possible in every brigade. This authority was 
promptly granted. One of the field secretaries, Mr. 
Millar, was assigned to the army and navy department. 
Other international secretaries promptly cooperated. 
Local secretaries, students at the training schools, and 
other association workers, were secured to man the 
tents, and speedily there were opened ninety tents which 
were managed during the brief months of the war by 
over one hundred and forty association workers. Some 
of the state committees also sustained workers and tents 
in United States camps for regiments from their 
respective states. 

The cooperation of Mr. D. L. Moody, as chairman of 
the evangelistic department of the Committee's work, 
was heartily given, and the money for this part of the 
work was raised almost entirely by Mr. Moody. Evan- 
gelists were carefully selected and sent out through the 
encampments, with wonderful and blessed results. 

Key West was a sort of camp of the navy, the resort 

155 



of thousands of American sailors as the ships visited 
this important naval center. There the Committee 
established a work for sailors corresponding to what 
was already being undertaken for soldiers. 

Of this whole army and navy work it has been well said : 
"It was the Young Men's Christian Associations mobil- 
ized, with their conveniences, amusements, entertain- 
ments, hospitalities, Bible classes, religious meetings and 
other features, that marched when the soldiers marched, 
camped when they camped, sailed from the shores of 
the United States when our soldiers sailed, landed on 
foreign and hostile shores when they landed, and today 
accompanies them on their exile from home, brightens 
the dullness and helps them to combat the dangers of 
their dreary daily life amid foreign speaking people in 
tropical and unfriendly lands." 

To carry out this work, to provide the tents and 
workers and to. furnish them suitable equipment, money 
was needed largely in excess of the resources of the 
Committee. One of its secretaries, Mr. Lougee, was 
asigned to the business department of this new work. 
Mr. Cree gave invaluable cooperation. Friends of the 
American soldier and sailor were widely and wisely 
solicited. The work in the army and navy, in addition 
to the usual work, caused the expenditure for 1898 to 
amount to nearly $164,000. But the friends of the work 
were equal to the emergency and the Committee closed 
its fiscal year with every obligation happily met and 
with devout thanks to God for his wonderful blessing. 

In the months following the cessation of hostilities 
there was at first little cessation of your Committee's 
work. At the close of 1898 both the soldiers and the 
sailors asked for its continuance and offered what they 
could toward its support. This willingness to contri- 
bute on their part was certainly a very strong testimony 
to the value of the benefit received by them. 

The Committee, therefore, in adopting its budget for 
1899 could not refuse to contemplate the continuance of 

156 



the work in the armies of occupation, the United States 
camps, and among the sailors. The President of the 
Republic, and both the War and Navy Departments 
expressed a desire for this continuance. The sailors 
and their commanding officers, with the approval of the 
Navy Department, especially requested the establish- 
ment of the work at the various navy yards. The Com- 
mittee was counseled by friends of the navy work to 
administer this department as a unit, with branches at 
the navy yards and on the vessels. The organization 
has been begun experimentally on this plan at the Brook- 
lyn navy yard. Rear-Admiral Philip accepted election 
as a member of the Committee with special reference to 
this work, and as Commandant of the Brooklyn Navy 
Yard, has efficiently cooperated in opening at that 
point the first Naval Branch of the Young Men's Chris- 
tian Association. A friend of this work has already 
offered $50,000, provided a total of $150,000 can be 
raised, as a fund to erect a building for the Naval 
Branch in Brooklyn and to provide the Committee with 
the beginning of a permanent fund for work in the navy. 

The Committee adopted a budget for the army and 
navy work of 1899 conditioned upon the securing of the 
funds needed from month to month, and upon such 
action as this convention might take when the present 
report of the Committee should be submitted to it. 

In connection with the army and navy work in the 
islands which have come under the care or jurisdiction 
of the United States, special call has been made upon 
the Committee for association work among the English 
speaking and native young men of these islands. 

In September, 1898, James H. Banks, formerly secre- 
tary of the Springfield, Mo., association, was added to 
the secretarial force of this department. 

Administrative and Field Work. 

1. The general administration of the entire work and 
correspondence has been continued by the general sec- 

157 



retary, Richard C. Morse, under the direction of the 
Committee and its sub-committees. The extraordinary 
increase of the work during the past two years has 
made necessary the distribution of more responsibility 
to his associates. As the work grows this process of 
distribution must steadily go on, increasing the burden 
laid upon the leading secretary in the field, college, rail- 
road, army and navy, office, financial and foreign depart- 
ments. 

2. T. K. Cree has continued his effective labors in 
financial correspondence and consultation as to both the 
international work and serious problems in the state and 
local work; also his cooperation with the World's Com- 
mittee and in securing the American contribution for 
the work of that committee. 

3. W. E. Lougee has been chiefly occupied with the 
increasing burdens of the financial department. In the 
enlargement of the financial resources of the Committee 
he has performed a service indispensable and inval- 
uable. 

4. The field supervision has been continued by C. K. 
Ober, with headquarters at Chicago ; H. P. Andersen, 
at Asheville until September, 1898; and C. L. Gates, at 
Kansas City and later at Atlanta. C. S. Ward has 
joined the field secretarial force, with headquarters 
at Minneapolis, for the Northwest. W. B. Millar has 
continued field secretary at the East, though a consid- 
erable portion of his time has been devoted to the army 
and navy work. T. T. Hazlewood has been secured for 
special service in the eastern field. C. C. Michener, of 
the college force, has given considerable attention to 
the work of a field secretary, and will become a mem- 
ber of the field force in the autumn for the Central 
West. 

Through the faithful service of these secretaries the 
field supervision has been wisely cared for. But the 
unfortunate limitation of their number, occasioned by 
the slender means at the command of the Committee, 

158 



has been a constant source of difficulty and regret. This 
regret has been increased by the urgency with which 
the Committee has been requested to devote more atten- 
tion to the development of state work upon the area of 
the stronger state organizations. 

5. Robert Weidensall, honorary and senior secretary 
of the Committee, has continued to devote himself, so 
far as his health and private engagements have allowed, 
and with only nominal expense to the Committee, to the 
development of the county work and the enlistment and 
training of volunteer workers in the associations. 

Educational Work. 

The growth of work in this department is, on the 
whole, encouraging. There is but one secretary, George 
B. Hodge, giving it attention. The services of an asso- 
ciate would add to the efficiency of this department, 
especially in the direction of the literary society, the 
library and reading room, and lecture courses, to which 
might be wisely given such attention as has proved 
beneficial in recent years to the evening class work. 

At the last international convention the movement for 
standard courses of study was just begun. Steady, sub- 
stantial progress has been made. Eighteen outline 
courses of study have been prepared. A man of 
national reputation is secured as examiner for each 
subject, and the high standard of the courses is main- 
tained by annual examinations of a rigorous character. 
At the examinations of 1897 and 1898, 556 and 750 inter- 
national certificates respectively were won. At the time 
of the last convention fifteen colleges and universities 
had officially decided to accept, without further exami- 
nation, students presenting our certificates, so far as 
these covered any portion of the college entrance exam- 
inations. This number of cooperating colleges 
increased in 1898 to 60, and the present year to 100. 

The extra tuition fees, aside from membership dues, 

159 



paid by students into the treasuries of local associations, 
have doubled during the past two years, and now amount 
to more than $30,000 annually. The percentage of 
attendance has increased from seventy-six to eighty. 
These facts prove that the students appreciate the 
higher standards and requirements. 

Physical Work. 

The Athletic League has continued its efforts in the 
directions specified in the last report. Special and 
needed emphasis has been laid, not upon the increase 
of competitive games and athletics, but upon their pro- 
motion, where they are desired by the associations, in a 
straightforward, honest way. Undoubtedly as a result 
a higher standard exists in many associations than two 
years ago. The number of association officers coope- 
rating has grown steadily. A similar movement in 
many colleges and athletic clubs is believed to have 
gained much of its impulse from our league — a new 
illustration of the widening, practical influence of the 
association movement. Cooperative plans for the reg- 
istration of athletes and the sanction of games, have 
involved much labor, but have been very helpful in pro- 
moting this desirable result. 

The physical directors' conferences, a part of the 
league's work, have become increasingly practical and 
useful. 

With the beginning of 1898 George T. Hepbron was 
associated with Dr. Gulick as a secretary in this depart- 
ment. Eighty-seven associations are members of the 
league. 

The Student Department. 

In the student work steady and encouraging progress, 
as reported by the ten student secretaries, has been 
realized. 

Mr. Mott continues senior student secretary, devot- 

160 



ing a portion of his time each year to the work of the 
World's Student Christian Federation as its general 
secretary. The first meeting of the Federation and of 
its general committee was held in the summer of 1897, 
at Williamstown, Mass., immediately after the World's 
Student Conference at Northfield. In July, 1898, a 
second meeting of the committee was held in connection 
with the World's Student Conference at Eisenach, Ger- 
many. At all of these meetings Mr. Mott was present. 
The work of the Federation has steadily grown. Your 
Committee has been enabled to release as much of Mr. 
Mott's time as is called for by the World's Federation 
through the generous help of two friends of the student 
department. These friends relieve the Committee of 
financial expenditure in connection with Mr. Mott's 
work with the understanding that his relation to the 
administration of the Committee's student work shall 
continue. 

In this administration of the American student work 
there have been associated with Mr. Mott, H. P. Ander- 
sen, formerly of the field force of the Committee, but 
since September, 1898, the associate of Mr. Mott in 
supervising the student department ; C. C. Michener, 
whose time and efforts are chiefly occupied with the 
student work at the West; Harry Wade Hicks, for the 
eastern field; Gilbert A. Beaver, who has done effective 
work among the professional schools of the metropol- 
itan centers ; Robert P. Wilder, for the theological sec- 
tion; George Gleason, for work among preparatory 
schools ; W. K. Matthews, for the southern field ; D. A. 
Davy, who has rendered acceptable service as the stu- 
dent office secretary ; and W. A. Hunton, in the institu- 
tions for colored students at the South. Progressive 
outlines of study are being prepared for the four years 
of the college course. Encouraging progress in this 
department has resulted. 

Mr. Mott and Mr. Andersen also serve as members 

161 



of the executive committee of the Student Volunteer 
Movement. 

The four student summer conferences have been held 
in 1897 and 1898 at Northfield, Lake Geneva, in the 
South, and on the Pacific Coast, and have given stim- 
ulus and strength to the work of the department for 
each academic year. The Committee has also con- 
ducted or assisted at a number of presidential and dep- 
utation conferences for the further training of the lead- 
ers of the student associations. 

During the past two years thirty-eight theological 
institutions, representing eighteen denominations, have 
entered the student movement by organizing associa- 
tions, and a sub-committee of the college committee has 
been appointed for the theological section. Without 
doubt the affiliation of the theological institutions, in 
which are being trained the leaders of all branches of 
the church, constitutes one of the most notable steps of 
progress of the past few years. 

The secretaries of the student department having 
brought to the attention of the Committee the fact that 
ever since the beginning of the intercollegiate movement 
there had been need of a special periodical as a medium 
of communication and discussion, and that since the 
time when the Committee suspended the Inter collegian 
in 1892, the need of such a paper had been increasingly 
felt, and that the Student Volunteer, published in the 
interests of the Student Volunteer Movement, was 
fulfilling that office and conferring that benefit among 
the student volunteers; it was proposed that the Inter- 
collegian be revived, and the Student Volunteer be 
merged with it, and that the single periodical serve the 
two student movements. The Committee gave careful 
and favorable consideration to this proposition, and the 
first number of the resumed Inter collegian was issued 
in October, 1898. It has proved to be a very valuable 
help in the student movement during the past season. 

162 



Railroad Work. 

Such signal progress has been realized in the railroad 
department that to Messrs. Hicks, Hamilton and Wil- 
liams, the three railroad secretaries of two years ago, 
the Committee has added as associates Messrs. Moore, 
McDill and Shipp. 

The existing railroad organizations have called for 
very careful supervision ; extension, specially west of 
the Mississippi along various trunk lines, has been hap- 
pily prosecuted. In both supervision and extension the 
Committee has sought at every point practicable the co- 
operation of the state organizations and the authoriza- 
tion of the local associations. 

The railroad conference at Fort Wayne last October 
exceeded in size and interest any of its predecessors. 

Toward the erection of the long desired building for 
our railroad department at the St. Louis railroad station, 
the co-operation of nearly all of the twenty-one rail- 
road corporations whose lines center at that point has 
been happily secured after several years of patient solic- 
itation. 

At the World's Conference of the associations at 
Basle last July, the senior railroad secretary, Mr. Hicks, 
read a paper on the development of the railroad depart- 
ment of the American associations. He also brought 
this work to the attention of railroad officials in Great 
Britain and France. The visit of Mr. Hicks resulted 
in an invitation to him to return to Europe for the pur- 
pose of giving information and suggestion concerning 
any practicable adaptation or reproduction of our rail- 
road work among European railroad employes. The 
entire expense of such a trip was generously provided 
by a friend of the work, and Mr. Hicks is now abroad 
upon this important errand. 

The income of the Sidney Dillon Fund has been 
appropriated, according to the purpose of its donor, to 
work upon the lines of the Union Pacific system in such 

163 



a way as to promote the extension of the work and its 
self-support by the corporation and its employes. This 
policy of the Committee is fostered sympathetically by 
the railroad management. 

Work Among Colored and Indian Young Men. 

W. A. Hunton was joined, in 1898, in the work among 
colored young men, by J. E. Moorland. The latter now 
largely carries on the visitation of city associations, and 
the former works chiefly among the schools and col- 
leges. Growth in this department is necessarily slow, 
but is real and encouraging. 

Dr. Eastman devoted a limited portion of his time to 
the Indian work, and was succeeded in July, 1898, by 
A. T. Tibbetts, who gives it his sole attention. The two 
summer conferences for the study of the Bible and 
association work have been very useful. 

Office Work. 

In April, 1898, a long-needed opportunity to system- 
atize the important work of the central office was 
afforded by removal from the crowded quarters that 
had been occupied for ten years, to a larger and far 
more convenient location. Every department has 
received an impetus from this great improvement of 
facilities. The army and navy work could not have been 
handled in the former office. Messrs. Uhl, Leonard, 
Ninde and Glover have continued their excellent work 
of former years on substantially the same lines, and 
have been joined by other effective workers needed by 
.the great increase of the office work. 

The Bowne Historical Library, a location for which 
is furnished by the training school at Springfield, has 
grown, under the careful management of J. T. Bowne, 
until it now contains 2,321 volumes. 

164 



World-wide Reports. 

Reports for the years 1897-1898 have been received 
from the corresponding members of the Committee in 



Australasia, 

France, 

Germany, 

Great Britain, 

Japan, 

Turkey, 

Canadian West, 

Maritime Provinces, 

Ontario, 

Quebec, 

Hawaii, 

Yukon District, 

Arkansas, 

California, 

Colorado, 

Connecticut, 



Georgia, 

Illinois, 

Indiana, 

Iowa, 

Kansas, 

Kentucky, 

Louisiana, 

Maine, 

Maryland Group, 

Massachusetts and 

Rhode Island, 
Michigan, 
Minnesota, 
Mississippi, 
Missouri, 



Nebraska, 

New Hampshire, 

New Jersey, 

New York, 

North Carolina, 

North Dakota, 

Ohio, 

Pennsylvania, 

South Carolina, 

Tennessee, 

Texas, 

Utah, 

Vermont, 

Virginia, 

Wisconsin, 



These reports, as given in the Year Book for 1899, 
probably furnish the best historical statement regarding 
recent work for young men that can anywhere be found 
in so condensed a form. 

State and Provincial Conventions. 

The Year Book also contains a statement of important 
facts regarding the sixty-two state and provincial con- 
ventions, which have so fully reflected the life of the 
movement. At every one the Committee has been repre- 
sented by its members or secretaries, and many expres- 
sions of thanks have been received for the aid thus 
rendered. This service is increasingly important, 
because of its happy influence in strengthening the ties 
which unite the associations in one brotherhood and in 
putting steady emphasis upon the fundamental principles 
and tested methods of our work. 

The conventions referred to were held in 



165 



Alabama, Kansas, North Carolina, 

Arkansas, Kentucky, North Dakota, 

California, Maine, Ohio, 

Colorado, Michigan, Pennsylvania, 

Connecticut, Minnesota, South Carolina, 

Georgia, Missouri, Tennessee, 

Illinois, Nebraska, Texas, 

Indiana, New Jersey, Virginia, 

Iowa, New York, Wisconsin. 

Also joint conventions by the associations of the 

Maritime Provinces, 

Ontario and Quebec, 

Vermont and New Hampshire, 

Massachusetts and Rhode Island, 

Maryland, District of Columbia, Delaware, and West Virginia. 

Mississippi and Louisiana, 

The Pacific Northwest (including Idaho, Oregon, Washington, 

and British Columbia). 
Canadian West (including Manitoba and Northwest Territories). 

Publications. 

The following sixty-two publications have been issued 
by the Committee since the last convention : — 

Year Book for 1898 and 1899. 

Report of International Convention at Mobile, Ala., 1897. 

Revised list of paid officers, two issues. 

Membership tickets for city associations. 

" college associations. 

" railroad associations. 

" naval associations. 

Our Evangelical Basis. Revised edition. Robert Weidensall. 
The Association for the Times. F. S. Goodman. 
Young Men's Christian Association Section. H. P. Andersen. 
The Volunteer Extension Movement. Robert Weidensall. 
Constitution for Small Town Associations. Robert Weidensall. 
Rules for County Work. Robert Weidensall. 
Rules for Young Men's Christian Association Band. Robert 

Weidensall. 
Association Prayer Cycle for 1898 and 1899. 
Bible Study Prospectus for 1898. 

Why Read and Study the Bible. James McConaughy. 
Yours. F. B. Hoagland. 

The Public Use of the Bible. D. O. Shelton. 
Lessons in Prayer. F. S. Goodman. 
Availing Prayer. W. W. White. 

166 



Philippians: The Model Letter. W. G. Ballantine. 

Christ in the Gospel of Mark. W. G. Ballantine. 

Studies in the Life of Jesus. William H. Sallmon. 

Studies in the Parables of Jesus. William H. Sallmon. 

Studies in the Miracles of Jesus. William H. Sallmon. 

The Secret Prayer Life. John R. Mott. 

Bible Study for Spiritual Growth. John R. Mott. 

The Morning Watch. John R. Mott. 

Studies in the Life of Christ. H. B. Sharman. 

Studies in the Acts and Epistles. E. I. Bosworth. 

The Bible Student, five issues. 

Annual Report of the Educational Department for 1897 and 1898. 

Educational Department Prospectus for 1897 and 1898. 

Educational Examination Questions for 1897 and 1898. 

Literary Society and Congress. 

Record for Literary Society or Congress. 

Industrial Training and National Prosperity. E. L. Shuey. 

Athletic League Hand Book. 

Intermediate Physical Examination Blanks. 

Medical Examination Blanks. 

Personal History Blanks. 

Home Dumb Bell Drill. R. J. Roberts. 

Notes on Physical Department Work. J. H. McCurdy, M. D. 

Constitution for an Association in a Preparatory School. 
Constitution for an Association in a Theological Seminary. 
The Association in a Theological Seminary. R. P. Wilder. 
The Inter collegian, eight issues. 

Report of Conference of Railroad Associations, Fort Wayne, 1898. 
The Railroad Department, with Testimonials. Revised edition. 
Conditions of Success in the Railroad Department. 
Railroad Association Uniform Vouchers. 

Obligations of the Railroad Department to Contributing Corpo- 
rations. C. J. Hicks. 
Railroad Tracts. G. A. Warburton. Five numbers. 

The Foreign Work Department of a City or Railroad Associa- 
tion. C. K. Ober. 
The Association Volunteer League. C. K. Ober. 
A Larger Life. C. K. Ober. 
Foreign Mail, eight issues. 

Promotion of Bible Study. 

The Mobile convention instructed the Committee to 
add to its force a secretary who should devote his time 
exclusively to the developing of "Bible study and per- 

167 



sonal Christian effort" among our associations. In 
obedience to this instruction the Committee promptly 
and urgently sought to secure a qualified leader for this 
department. A call to the position was extended suc- 
cessively, after careful correspondence and investigation, 
to four persons, each of whom seemed to the Committee 
well qualified. Each in his turn declined the invita- 
tion. Further protracted effort in this direction, after 
the outbreak of the war more than a year ago, was seri- 
ously crippled by the absorption of energy and effort 
occasioned by the large and unexpected work in the 
army and navy, which seemed to have imperative claim 
upon the Committee. 

But while much disappointed by the failure to meet 
the exact instructions of the Mobile convention, the 
Committee has sought with good results to cooperate 
with local and state organizations in developing the 
Bible work of the associations. And we are able to 
report that during the past two years there has been 
decided progress in the quality of the work done in this 
department. 

The Committee calls attention in this connection to 
the special exhibit of material connected with the Bible 
work of the associations, which has been carefully pre- 
pared for this convention. 

In cooperation with the state committees in New 
York and New England, and with the highly valued 
assistance of Mr. Edwin F. See, secretary of the Brook- 
lyn association, the Committee was able to issue, in 
1898 for the first time, a Bible prospectus, which has 
been used by so many associations that a prospectus for 
the coming year is now being prepared, after careful 
consultation with many of those who have made use 
of last year's prospectus. In this effort the Committee 
is again greatly indebted to the efficient and gratuitous 
cooperation of Mr. See. 

In the student department yet greater progress has 
been realized in Bible work. 

168 



Work in the Yukon District. 

The Committee calls attention to the report of its 
corresponding member for the Yukon District, T. S. 
Lippy, who reports that W. A. Reid, formerly secretary 
of the association in Kalamazoo, Michigan, after cor- 
respondence with the Committee in 1897, expressing a 
desire to undertake, at his own expense, association 
work in the Yukon District, secured some contributions 
from friends of the work, and also making use of his 
own resources, succeeded in reaching Skagway, and in 
establishing there an aggressive association work for 
young men, for which a building has been provided. 
Mr. Reid is desirous of extending the work to Dawson 
and other cities. 

Supervision and Extension. 

In connection with the extension of the railroad, edu- 
cational, physical, and army and navy departments, the 
question has been raised by some whether undesirable 
and even dangerous tendencies have not been devel- 
oped toward the exercise by the Committee of more 
than advisory functions, and whether there is enough 
of what is authoritative and mandatory in the Com- 
mittee's relation to these departments to threaten the 
principle of local autonomy and control. 

Leases of buildings for railroad associations are 
granted to the Committee. Wherever feasible, as is the 
case generally, the Committee sublets to the local or 
state organization. Where neither of these exists, or 
where such action is for good reason impracticable, the 
lease remains with the Committee. The interval 
between the beginning of the work and its transference 
to state or local control is made as brief as the circum- 
stances in each case allow. 

Of the fifty-seven buildings now occupied by the Railroad 
Department the situation in regard to leases is as follows: — 

1. Twenty-three buildings are held by the railroad corpora- 
tions, where the railroad associations are tenants at will. 

169 



2. Nine buildings are held by a lease in the name of the city 
Young Men's Christian Association. 

3. Nine buildings are held by local boards of trustees of the 
railroad associations. 

4. Eight buildings are held by a lease in the name of the local 
railroad association. 

5. Two buildings were originally leased to the International 
Committee, and the leases assigned by it to a city association or a 
local board of trustees. 

6. Six buildings are held by the International Committee. 

In several instances where buildings are held by city associa- 
tions or local boards of trustees, this was brought about through 
the cooperation and at the suggestion of the International Com- 
mittee. 

In the administration of the Athletic League rules are 
necessary, which seem to some to work against the 
interests of the associations that do not join the league. 
Of course, within the league itself these rules are sub- 
mitted to as involving more of advantage than disad- 
vantage by their observance. 

In the administration of the educational department 
and in the issuance of certificates, more recognition of 
the local and state organizations is desired, and is being 
sought by the Committee. 

In the administration of the army and navy depart- 
ment, perhaps beyond any other, the burden of local 
administration, as well as of general supervision, has 
fallen to the Committee. 

In these and all departments of its work, the rela- 
tions and functions of the Committee — as agent of the 
local associations, to which it holds a direct constitu- 
tional responsibility — have been as a rule advisory, and 
its constant aim has been to place the local responsi- 
bility and administration in the hands of the local and 
state organizations. But wherever the functions of 
local or state administration could not for any sufficient 
reason be exercised, the Committee has, under the 
instructions of previous conventions, administered the 
work, duly reporting the same. The Committee again 
submits its report for action by this convention. 

170 



Any priority of relationship of either the interna- 
tional or state organization to the local association has 
not yet been declared, and the equal relation of each 
supervisory agency to the local association, as long as 
it continues, makes any declaration of this sort impos- 
sible. But under the existing arrangement of a comity 
established by usage, priority has almost invariably been 
freely yielded by the international to the state organ- 
ization. This ought to continue to be the case. But 
circumstances will arise in the future, as in the past, 
where, for good reason, it seems desirable either that 
the equal relationship of each should be manifested and 
acknowledged, or in yet rarer cases the priority of the 
international organization be acknowledged. 

But in all the administration of the international 
work an excellent and effective check on the growth of 
undesirable tendencies exists in the meeting every two 
years of this convention, in the reception by it of the 
report of its Committee and in action upon this report 
— a procedure which every two years subjects the entire 
work to review, modification and recommitment accord- 
ing to the judgment of the convention concerning the 
work accomplished and the methods pursued. 

In the use of this opportunity your Committee sub- 
mits the following declaration for the consideration of 
the convention : — 

Resolved, i. That the International and State Com- 
mittees exist as independent supervisory agencies, 
directly and equally related to the local organization, 
which is the original and independent unit in the 
brotherhood of the Young Men's Christian Associations, 
and that the relation of the supervisory agencies to the 
local organizations is as a rule advisory. 

2. That in the relations of comity, which have been 
well established by usage hitherto, it is understood that 
the International Committee as a rule exercises general 
and the State Committee exercises close supervision, 
it being also understood that by the terms general and 

171 



close nothing is intended inconsistent with the direct and 
equal relation of each local organization to both inter- 
national and state organizations. 

3. That it is desirable that the International Com- 
mittee, in each department of its work, plan to meet the 
needs of fields where state and provincial organizations 
exist, in conference with such organizations, in such 
a way as to supplement, not duplicate, the corresponding 
department of state or provincial work, and to secure 
by such adjustment of forces economy of effort, time 
and money. 

4. That the International Committee, in forming and 
developing state or provincial organizations, places 
emphasis upon the responsibility vested in these organ- 
izations, and that cooperation with them be carefully 
cultivated. 

Financial Need and Outlook. 

1. The financial condition and outlook of the work 
you have entrusted to the Committee calls for the most 
careful attention of the convention. 

The Mobile convention authorized the annual expen- 
diture of as large a sum as $80,000 on the home field, 
in view of the irrepressible growth of the work in its 
various departments. 

The expenditure of the Committee on the home field 
during 1897 and 1898 has averaged less than $80,000, 
exclusive of the army and navy work. But the out- 
break of the war in April, 1898, necessitated, under the 
circumstances already referred to, the creation of the 
army and navy department, the expense of which during 
the remaining eight months of 1898 amounted to over 
$80,000, so that the total budget of expense for 1898 was 
the unprecedented sum of $164,000, or more than double 
the largest expenditure by the Committee in any one 
year. 

By the blessing of God, in answer to prayer and 
effort, the entire amount needed was secured, mainly 

172 



through the contributions of friends who were already 
giving generously to our work. 

2. A study of the sources whence came the amount 
needed for this remarkable year is interesting and sug- 
gestive. 

Twenty-three friends gave $59,800 of the amount ; 
twenty-four added $12,600, so that forty-seven friends of 
the work gave an aggregate of over $72,000, or 44 per 
cent ; the remaining 56 per cent came from over 5,000 
donors, in sums of less than $500, and the great majority 
of them below $50. The largest number of donors in 
any previous year was a little over 2,300. 

For the two years the sources of income for the home 
work were : — 

In 1897: 

455 associations (including those which 
took up week of prayer collections 
and maintained extension funds) 

contributed $ 6,797 67 

2,036 persons gave, in sums of less than $100 16,785 15 

67 persons gave, in sums of $100 6,700 00 

27 persons gave, in sums of from $101 to 

$500 5,915 64 

32 persons gave, in sums of from $500 to 

$3,500 28,400 00 

2,162 A total of $64,598 81 

In 1898: 

542 associations (including those which 
took up week of prayer and self- 
denial collections and maintained 

extension funds) contributed $15,23946 

5,228 persons gave, in sums of less than 

$100 51,839 41 

87 persons gave, in sums of $100 8,700 00 

74 persons gave, in sums of from $101 

to $500 15,594 00 

47 persons gave, in sums of from $500 

to $9,000 72,400 00 

5,436 A total of $163,772 87 

173 



The army and navy work, therefore, made a broader 
appeal to a larger number of donors than any work ever 
yet undertaken. But the bulk of the money came from 
comparatively few, and of those few the great majority 
were old friends. Indeed, as the close of the year 1898 
approached and the treasury was threatened with a 
heavy deficit of $30,000, twelve friends who had already 
given $25,000 gave an additional $21,000, more than 
two-thirds of the sum needed to remove the deficit. 

The proportion of the total amount ($164,000) which 
came from associations and their employed officers was 
less than one-seventh. The total amount may be 
roughly distributed as follows : One-seventh from asso- 
ciation treasuries and their employed officers ; three- 
sevenths from forty-seven contributors ; and the 
remaining three-sevenths from over 5,000 donors. 

These significant facts place the strongest possible 
emphasis upon the need there is for an extension of the 
constituency of givers to the international work, and 
the urgency there is for cooperation of all friends of 
the associations in this indispensable effort. It also 
reveals the embarrassment which your Committee labors 
under, owing to the fact that while it must administer 
a work of growing magnitude and complexity, it must 
at the same time engage in a severe struggle for exist- 
ence so far as financial support is concerned. The 
division of effort by the Committee and its employed 
officers between the administration of the work and the 
securing of its financial support is an ever recurring 
problem awakening solicitude and not as yet receiving 
a satisfactory solution. 

The following is a summary of the treasurer's state- 
ments for 1897 and 1898: — 



174 



Statement of the Treasurer for 1897. 

receipts. 

Balance from 1896 $ 4-2 61 

Subscriptions: — 

(1) General work 47,280 35 

(2) College work 9,109 91 

(3) Other special branches of work 10,812 25 

Week of prayer collections 2,732 79 

Interest on invested funds 405 26 

Profit on publications 63 17 



$70,446 34 
expenditures. 

Work in the East and Canada, including that of general, 

office, and traveling secretaries §10,468 09 

Similar work in the South and West 12,643 97 

Railroad work 10,845 62 

College work 11,184 18 

Work for German young men 740 35 

Work for colored young men .... 2,235 68 

Work for Indian young men 1,324 12 

Educational work 4,086 88 

Securing general secretaries 3,943 46 

Securing physical directors, and other physical depart- 
ment work 2,772 71 

International Convention 1,802 67 

Office rent 2,650 00 

Office expenses 1,261 89 

Postage and expressage 2,246 13 

Printing and stationery 2,172 35 

§70,378 10 
Balance to 1898 68 24 

$70,446 34 
Publication Account. 

receipts. 

Year Book $ 843 81 

College publications 2,349 64 

Physical department publications 1,479 68 

Hand Book 134 26 

Educational publications 502 07 

Record books and blanks 700 78 

Miscellaneous publications 5,157 27 

$11,167 51 

I7S 



EXPENDITURES. 

Year Book $ 780 15 

College publications 1,302 29 

Physical department publications 774 64 

Hand Book 67 50 

Educational publications 553 50 

Record books and blanks 518 47 

Miscellaneous publications 4,674 72 

Office expenses 2,433 07 

$11,104 34 
Balance, net profit on publications 63 17 



$11,167 51 



Statement of the Treasurer for 1898. 

receipts. 

Balance from 1897 $ 68 24 

Subscriptions: — 

Army and Navy work, from associations 9,201 59 

Army and Navy work, from individuals 57,676 57 

Army and Navy work, for evangelists 14,153 48 

College work, from associations 783 15 

College work, from individuals 5,401 70 

Other branches of work, from associations 3,596 27 

Other branches, from individuals 69,917 69 

Week of prayer collections 2,805 25 

Interest on invested funds: — 

Jubilee fund (1894), bequests of W. E. Dodge (1884), 
J. N. Harris (1897), H. C. Blum (1898), and Mrs C. L. 
Colby (1899), and gift of James Bowron (1896) 370 00 

Profit on publications 83 70 



$164,057 64 
EXPENDITURES. 

Army and Navy work: — 
Salaries and traveling expenses of 145 associa- 
tion workers and expenses of 90 tents $35,827 58 

Salaries and expenses of evangelists 17,125 37 

Equipment, tents, lumber, chairs, etc 9,804 30 

Express, freight, printing, stationery, tele- 
grams, postage 18,189 00 

§80,946 52 

176 



Work in the East and Canada, including that of general, 

office, and traveling secretaries $ 9,682 49 

Similar work in the South and West 14,211 11 

Railroad work 16,231 63 

College work 11,935 02 

Work for colored young men 2,202 85 

Work for Indian young men 851 00 

Educational work 3,993 30 

Securing general secretaries 3,926 89 

Securing physical directors, and other physical depart- 
ment work 3,758 45 

Office rent 2,520 86 

Fitting up and furnishing new office 4,304 08 

Office expenses 1,528 45 

Postage and expressage 4,330 56 

Printing and stationery 3,349 93 

$163,772 87 
Balance to 1899 284 77 



$164,057 64 

Publication Account. 

receipts. 

Year Book $ 845 81 

College publications 3,008 02 

Physical department publications 1,090 05 

Hand Book 157 18 

Educational publications 910 41 

Record books and blanks 702 38 

Miscellaneous publications 7,971 73 

$14,685 58 
EXPENDITURES. 

Year Book $ 6 90 

College publications 2,457 26 

Physical department publications 846 05 

Hand Book — 

Educational publications 561 00 

Record books and blanks 169 40 

Miscellaneous publications 7,092 26 

Office expenses 3,469 01 

$14,601 88 
Balance, net profit on publications 83 70 

$14,685 58 

177 



The following statement shows the receipts and 
expenditures during the same period for work in foreign 
lands : — 

Received, 1897. 

Balance from 1896 $ 331 84 

For work in Japan, India, Brazil, China, Ceylon, and for 

administration expenses 22,921 31 

$23,253 15 
Expended, 1897. 

For work in Japan, India, Brazil, China, Ceylon, and for 

administration expenses $23,182 98 

Balance to 1898 70 17 

$23,253 15 
Received, 1898. 

Balance from 1897 $ 70 17 

For work in Japan, India, Brazil, China, Ceylon, and for 

administration expenses 28,017 22 

$28,087 39 
Expended, 1898. 

For work in Japan, India, Brazil, China, Ceylon, and for 

administration expenses §27,872 55 

Balance to 1899 214 84 

$28,087 39 

3. In facing the financial responsibilities and work of 
1899 the Committee encountered a very urgent call 
from both soldiers and sailors and their commanding 
officers to continue the work in both arms of the ser- 
vice, in the armies of occupation in the West and East 
Indies, and at the navy yards of the United States. So 
earnest was this request that when the soldiers learned 
that the continuance of the work was dubious on account 
of lack of means, they immediately began to send in 
gifts out of their small pay. The following amounts 
have been received from them, making a total of 
$2,178.66:— 

In November. $ 477 80 In February... $457 21 

In December. 1,016 90 In March 461 48 

In January. . . 598 35 In April 76 92 

178 



To continue the work enlarged by an army and navy 
department a budget for 1899 was required smaller than 
that of 1898, but not far from double that of 1897. 

The most expensive department of the new budget 
was that of the army and navy. This new part of the 
budget was therefore conditioned on the securing from 
month to month of actual contributions equal to the 
expenditures, until this convention should have oppor- 
tunity to determine whether this addition should be 
made to the work intrusted to your Committee. 

The Financial Situation on April 30, 1899. 

1. For the work in foreign lands the Committee 
adopted a budget of $27,000, of which $10,500 had been 
received on April 30, and the balance can be confidently 
relied upon. 

2. For the home work, including that in the army 
and navy, at the end of April the total expenditure of 
the Committee for the first third of 1899 amounted to 
$45>336, exclusive of the publication department, which 
for several years has reported no deficit. Cash contri- 
butions have been received slightly in excess of this 
sum, so that the Committee comes to the convention 
without deficit for current expenses. 

At the present cost of the work the expenditure for 
the remaining two-thirds of the year will be $90,000. 
Of this sum $22,000 will be needed for the army and 
navy work, and for the balance of the home work 
$68,000. 

Of this sum the Committee has in pledges and 
from other reliable resources, for the army 
and navy work $ 8,000 

For the balance of the home work 42,000 

This leaves a deficit for the army and 
navy of $14,000 

And for the home work 26,000 

Being a total of $40,000 

needed in new money, or in contributions from new 

179 



sources. To obtain this large balance cooperation from 
the associations and the friends of the work is most 
urgently called for. 

Unless the way can be opened for your Committee 
to the larger financial resources which this situation 
urgently calls for, it will be necessary to abridge the 
work and withdraw from the Committee's force secre- 
taries whose continuance is necessary to the maintenance 
of the association work in some of the neediest sections 
and departments of the field, for the special large 
amounts given in the year of the war cannot be secured 
again in 1899. New contributors must therefore be 
found. 

Public Presentation of the Work. 

The Committee has made every effort possible to bring 
the international work to the attention of those who 
would take a personal interest in sustaining it. This 
task is exceedingl}' - difficult. There is today a dispo- 
sition to feel that when the errand of the Committee 
in any community relates to the support of the inter- 
national work, and involves contribution, the door must 
be closed. The number of associations that are ready 
to welcome any effort by the Committee to present its 
work and make it visible to the friends of the local 
organization is not increasing. The almost universal 
struggle for existence financially may account for this. 
Yet the Committee believes that the presentation of the 
international work in any community helps rather than 
harms the local work and tends to increase the con- 
stituency of donors to both local and supervisory work. 

To the Women's Auxiliary of the International Com- 
mittee the associations are indebted for generous inter- 
est in promoting the holding of parlor meetings, which 
have brought the work of the various departments to 
the attention of new friends. 

The two anniversary dinners of the Committee, in 
November, 1897 and 1898, were held as usual in New 

180 



York City. Many friends, new and old, were in attend- 
ance, and the anniversary of 1898 included a strong pre- 
sentation of the army and navy work, in which friends 
present showed a deep and practical interest. 

The Committee is persuaded that similar meetings in 
other cities are exceedingly desirable in the interest of 
proper understanding and appreciation of the work 
entrusted to the Committee by the international con- 
ventions. No better method of presentation of the 
work has yet been devised, and the Committee believes 
that if there were a more generous disposition on the 
part of the associations to offer such an opportunity to 
their International Committee, its improvement would * 
prove of as great benefit to the local as to the interna- 
tional work. 

Endowment. 

1. Partial endowment of the work intrusted to its 
Committee was carefully considered by the Springfield 
convention in 1895, and that convention "heartily 
approved of effort to secure a permanent fund for the 
partial endowment of the various lines of this work, 
and emphasized the importance of providing a general 
fund that would be available in whichever direction the 
need was greatest." The Mobile convention reaffirmed 
this recommendation. At the annual meeting of the 
Committee last November, one of the speakers, Mr. 
William E. Dodge, urged the importance of such a 
partial endowment of this work of supervision as would 
correspond to the endowment already received by the 
local associations in the form of buildings and perma- 
nent funds. 

In response to these appeals your Committee is happy 
to report that one friend early in the present year offered 
$50,000, provided that a total of $100,000 can be secured 
as partial endowment for the student department of the 
work, in its important relations not only to the student 

181 



association work on this continent, but also to the stu- 
dent work throughout the world. 

Yet more recently another friend has offered another 
$50,000 to be used in the naval department of the inter- 
national work, provided a total of $150,000 can be 
secured as a fund to be expended in part for the erection 
of a naval branch building near the Brooklyn navy yard, 
the balance to remain with the Committee as a fund for 
its entire work in the navy. 

The Committee earnestly hopes that the conditions 
of these two offers may be speedily fulfilled. In this 
way a partial endowment of $250,000 will be secured for 
these two important departments of its work. Nothing 
approaching total endowment of any department is 
desired or thought of. 

But in this connection the attention of the convention 
is specially called to the fact that neither of these offers 
is a fulfilment of the most emphatic part of the action 
taken at Springfield in 1895. For while partial endow- 
ment of the various departments was recommended, 
first emphasis was placed on "the importance of provid- 
ing a general fund that would be available in whichever 
direction the need was greatest." If the question were 
asked what amount of endowment is called for to give 
the work needed stability and to encourage and increase 
annual contributions, a reasonable reply would be that 
when the extent and importance of the work entrusted 
to the Committee is considered, a permanent fund of at 
least $1,000,000 would fall short of giving to the work 
of supervision a partial endowment similar to that which 
is already possessed by all the stronger local associations 
in the buildings which they own and occupy, — an endow- 
ment which has stimulated the increase of annual contri- 
butions to their work. The procuring of such an 
endowment would be an achievement well befitting the 
Jubilee year of the American Association Movement. 

2. The present endowment fund of the Committee, 
the income of which is available for its work, consists of 

182 



Jubilee fund $1,517 42 

Bequest of William E. Dodge 5,000 00 

Bequest of J. N. Harris 2,00000 

Bequest of H. C. Blum 174 23 

Bequest of Charles L. Colby 5,ooo 00 

Bequest of Mrs. Charles L. Colby. .. . 2,000 00 

Gift of James Bowron 500 00 

$16,191 65 

The Board of Trustees also holds and administers for 
railroad work on the Union Pacific system the Sidney 
Dillon fund of $25,000. 

Regular meetings of the Board of Trustees were held 
January 25, 1898, and March 14, 1899, in New York. 
The board has lost by death Dr. James Carey Thomas, 
and by resignation, Julius J. Estey. There have been 
added to it James Stokes, F. B. Schenck, C. W. Mc- 
Alpin and George Foster Peabody. The present officers 
of the board are Bowles Colgate, president; John S. 
Bussing, treasurer, and Richard C. Morse, recording 
secretary. 

Work in the Foreign Field. 

To the secretaries upon the foreign field there have 
been added, since the Mobile convention : in India 
George Benton Smith ; in Japan, Galen M. Fisher ; and 
in China, F. S. Brockman, Robert R. Gailey and Robert 
E. Lewis. Their reports, together with those of Messrs. 
Swift and Miller in Japan ; Lyon in China ; McCon- 
aughy, J. C. and W. W. White and Eddy in India ; 
Hieb in Ceylon; and Clark in Brazil, which are sub- 
mitted with this report, all show encouraging progress. 
It is a significant fact that new buildings have been 
secured at Rio Janeiro, Tientsin, Calcutta, and Madras. 
There is urgent call for several new secretaries at crit- 
ical and needy points on the foreign field. 

Mr. Swift presented his resignation last autumn after 
his return from Japan the previous summer, and it was 
accepted with deep regret, and with profound gratitude 

183 



for the important and indispensable service which for 
nine years he had rendered to the young men of Japan. 
The following minute was adopted by the Committee : — 

"The Committee has accepted with profound regret 
the resignation of Mr. Swift as its senior secretary upon 
the foreign mission field. The work that he accom- 
plished on behalf of the young men of Tokyo and of 
Japan during the years of his connection with the Com- 
mittee as its secretary and representative in that coun- 
try has been of the most useful and enduring character. 
He was the head and organizer of our work for young 
men of all classes in the city of Tokyo, as well as of 
the special work among students of the Imperial Uni- 
versity. The testimony of missionaries and Christian 
workers in Japan to his rare tact, ability and consecra- 
tion has been unanimous. To it has been added similar 
testimony from the members and secretaries of the 
Committee who have visted Japan during his secretary- 
ship. No part of the foreign field has problems more 
difficult or delicate than Japan. Mr. Swift has, by the 
grace of God, been equal to every emergency and to 
such a conduct of the work as has steadily increased its 
acceptance and usefulness among the Christians and 
the young men of Japan. 

"In connection with the fund for both the city and 
the student association buildings, he not only made the 
securing of that fund possible by wise and persevering 
solicitation, but his own generous gift far exceeded that 
of any other donor, and was the chief influence in 
making possible the securing of the whole amount 
needed. Thus unprecedented material contribution was 
added to his already generous contribution of time, 
energy and life." 

At the close of the year 1897 Mr. L. D. Wishard asked 
leave of absence for a year in order to engage as a 
special representative and agent of the Presbyterian 
Board of Foreign Missions in a "Forward Movement" 
designed to promote a more generous support of work 
by that board upon the foreign field, and the sending 
out more generally of the many student volunteers who 
desire to become missionaries. 

After a year's efficient labor in this movement Mr. 
Wishard returned to the service of the Committee last 

184 



January for a few weeks, when he decided to accept a 
call to engage in a similar "Forward Movement" on the 
part of the American Board of Commissioners for For- 
eign Missions. He then presented his resignation as 
a secretary of the Committee, a relation which he had 
sustained for the past twenty-two years. In accepting 
it the Committee adopted the following minute : — 

"In accepting the resignation of Luther D. Wishard, 
who has been one of its most efficient secretaries since 
the year 1877, the Committee desires to enter upon its 
minutes an expression of appreciation of the remark- 
able work which he has been blessed in accomplishing. 
During the first decade (1877-1887), as the pioneer 
student secretary of the Committee, he established and 
enlarged the American intercollegiate movement, which 
has since been so widely extended and so thoroughly 
administered by his successors. A principal feature of 
his work had been to place upon all the college associa- 
tions the impress of his own zeal and consecration in 
the foreign missionary cause. The Student Volunteer 
Movement, now so extensively organized, was an out- 
growth of this feature of Mr. Wishard's work. 

"The second decade of his secretaryship has been 
occupied in equally successful effort to promote the 
establishment of the American asociation work, specially 
in its student department, in all parts of the world, first 
by a careful visitation to almost every foreign mis- 
sionary field, and then by securing the funds needed to 
sustain the Committee's secretaries in foreign lands, 
and by vigorous cooperation with the Committee in the 
administration of that work. 

"One result of the outgrowth of his labors has been, 
as he states in his letter of resignation, the volunteering 
for the foreign field by Christian students in far larger 
numbers than the churches can send to that field. His 
resignation is occasioned solely by his desire to lead 
such a 'Forward Movement' in the churches as will 
enable them to send out the qualified students who are 
saying, 'We will go to the foreign field if you will 
send us.' 

"His departure, therefore, seems to the Committee a 
graduation and promotion into the leadership of a move- 
ment which is the direct consequence of the remarkable 
Christian work which he has been the means of inaugu- 
rating among students in this land and in all lands, 

185 



and we desire to convey to him the assurance that we 
will accompany him in this new work with our brotherly 
sympathies and with the prayer that it may prove to 
be an undertaking and an achievement which will form 
a fitting crown to the blessed work in the accomplish- 
ment of which the Committee counts it a privilege to 
have cooperated with him." 

In the administration of the work upon the foreign 
field since the retirement of Mr. YVishard, the Committee 
has found it desirable and practicable to make use, in 
the student department on that field., of the service of 
its senior student secretary, John R. Mott ; in other 
departments of the work on that field, of C. K. Ober, 
whose familiarity with similar service on the home field 
has peculiarly fitted him for this sen-ice; and in the 
administration of the business department of the foreign 
work, of George L. Leonard, secretary in the business 
department of the home work. This appears to be a 
satisfactory method of relating the workers on the home 
field with those on the foreign field who are engaged 
with similar problems. 

Association Volunteer League. 

Ever since the formation of the Student Volunteer 
Movement for Foreign Missions in institutions of higher 
learning, there has been felt the need in the city and 
railroad associations of an organization for those who 
are '"called to stay at home," but who might have a share 
in association work in non-Christian lands through 
prayer, special study and the practice of Christian stew- 
ardship. At the Student Volunteer Convention held at 
Cleveland, Ohio, in February, 1898. C. K. Ober outlined 
a plan for a "Forward Movement"' in the formation of 
the "Association Volunteer League.'' The matter has 
been taken up by leading associations in all parts of the 
country, leagues have been formed, and new interest 
aroused in the work for young men in foreign lands. 

This movement is commended to the thoughtful con- 
sideration of all our associations. 

1S6 



The World's Conference. 

Correspondence and intercourse have been maintained 
with the Committee of the World's Conference in 
Geneva, Switzerland, through Mr. James Stokes, its 
American member, and Mr. Morse, its American 
secretary. 

The fourteenth World's Conference was held in the 
city of Basle, July 6-n, 1898. Twenty-three nations 
were represented by six hundred delegates and twelve 
hundred corresponding members, and their reports, 
together with the report of the executive committee of 
the conference, gave abundant evidence of decided pro- 
gress in Christian work among all classes of young men. 
The Committee was represented by Mr. James Stokes, 
who gave an interesting report of the tour which he had 
undertaken around the world, beginning in 1896, and in 
which his time and efforts were chiefly devoted to pro- 
moting the welfare of work for young men in the many 
countries he visited. The Committee hopes for the 
presence of Mr. Stokes at this convention and for a 
report of his important world-wide work. In Rome, 
Italy, where he had already generously promoted the 
securing of a competent and well trained general secre- 
atry, he added the gift of a building, which is now occu- 
pied by the asociation and the title to which he desires 
your Committee to hold in trust. To the Brussels asso- 
ciation he rendered special help at the critical time when 
they were securing their present commodious association 
building. 

The work of the World's Committee has been pros- 
ecuted with unusual vigor during the past two years. 
The two secretaries of the Committee, Messrs. Fermaud 
and Phildius, have continued their efficient service, and 
their visitation in the countries of continental Europe, 
specially in Belgium, Holland, Germany and Scandi- 
navia, has proved of decided benefit to the building up 
and extension of the association work for young men. 

187 



Other representatives of the Committee at the Basle 
Conference were its vice-chairman, Mr. Alfred E. Alar- 
ling, and of the secretarial force, Messrs. Morse, Mott 
and Hicks. The work of the American associations 
generally was presented in an admirable paper by Mr. 
L. W. Messer, secretary of the Chicago association ; 
their Bible study by Mr. T. J. Wilkie, of Toronto; the 
student work by Mr. Mott; and the railroad work by 
Mr. Hicks. 

Membership of the Committee. 

In sympathy with the entire association brotherhood 
in this and all lands, the Committee shares the universal 
sense of loss and bereavement in the death, last Decem- 
ber, of Robert R. McBurney, for thirty-six years gen- 
eral secretary of the New York City association, for 
thirty-three years a member of the International Com- 
mittee, and all the life of his manhood the devoted and 
self-sacrificing friend of young men. 

His relation to this convention and to the work it has 
stood for in the development of the association move- 
ment has been, since the year 1865, one of influential 
leadership. He was ever bringing to the counsels and 
deliberations of the conventions which he attended with 
unfailing regularity the ripe results of the best achieve- 
ment which the secretaryship of the association fur- 
nished. It was an invaluable, ever increasing contribu- 
tion to the progress of work in Christ's name among 
young men. He had rare faculty in promoting the best 
life and action of the conventions ; his voice in delibera- 
tion and counsel was wise and influential ; and in all 
the measures that shaped the development of the con- 
vention and its work his influence was ever wisely 
exerted. His example as a faithful and consistent fol- 
lower of Jesus Christ and leader in the work of His 
kingdom will remain a perpetual inspiration to all those 
who like him are devoting their lives and energies to 
work in Christ's name. 

188 



The Committee also mourns with a profound sense 
of bereavement the loss of one of its younger members, 
Mr. Cephas Brainerd, Jr. An active worker and leader 
in the New York City association, he was elected a 
member of the Committee on the resignation of his 
father, who had been its honored chairman for twenty- 
five years. His wisdom in counsel and fidelity in ser- 
vice was ever winning the confidence of his associates 
and promoting the efficiency of their work. His memory 
and example will remain with us all as a precious pos- 
session. 

At the first meeting of the Committee following the 
Mobile convention Dr. Lucien C. Warner was re-elected 
chairman, Mr. Alfred E. Marling vice-chairman, and 
Mr. Frederick B. Schenck treasurer. 

Since that convention Dr. J. P. Munn, of New York 
City, has been elected a member of the Committee in the 
place of Robert S. Crawford, resigned; William Sloane, 
of New York City, in the place of George Foster Pea- 
body, resigned; Professors J. R. Stevenson and W. W. 
White have been elected members with special refer- 
ence to the new department of work in theological sem- 
inaries, and Rear-Admiral John W. Philip with refer- 
ence to work in the navy. 

Under the charter of the Committee and the rules 
of the convention, it is necessary to elect at this time 
fourteen members in place of the following gentlemen, 
whose terms of office expire with this convention : 
Francis C. Moore, Lucien C. Warner, C. W. McAlpin, 
W. D. Murray, Wm. H. Gratwick, E. L. Shuey, Thomas 
Cochran, T. S. McPheeters, Joseph Hardie, Owen Gath- 
right, W. W. Vicar, L. H. Dunning, Wilbert W. White 
and J. Ross Stevenson. Also five advisory members in 
the place of Cephas Brainerd, D. W. McWilliams, Mor- 
ris K. Jesup, Augustine T. Smythe, and H. E. Sargent. 



189 



Choice of Next Place of Meeting. 

Five years ago the World's Conference united with 
the parent London association in celebrating the 
Jubilee year of that association. The anniversary 
was made forever memorable in the history of work for 
young men by the most remarkable international Chris- 
tian convocation which has ever gathered in that great 
capital of Christendom. Your Committee cites this 
precedent in calling attention to the circumstance that 
the year of the next international convention, 1901, is 
also known as the Jubilee year of the organization of 
the Young Men's Christian Association on this con- 
tinent. During the month of December, 185 1, the first 
association was organized in the city of Montreal, and 
the second a few days afterward, and without any 
knowledge of the Montreal movement, at Boston, Mass. 
But both received their initial impulse and suggestion 
from the parent association in London, England. 

Both the Montreal and Boston associations have com- 
municated to your Committee their desire to entertain 
the international convention in the Jubilee year. The 
Committee has replied informing them of the act of the 
Mobile Convention in adopting a rule that "in deter- 
mining the place for holding the next convention, the 
invitations for such convention shall be presented on 
the floor at a time arranged for the purpose by the 
business committee, each invitation being entitled to 
five minutes for its presentation. These invitations, 
having been thus received by the convention, shall be 
referred to the International Committee, which shall 
determine upon the place for holding the next con- 
vention." 

In submitting the correspondence with these two asso- 
ciations your Committee would be glad to receive special 
instructions from the convention concerning its meeting 
in the Jubilee year. 

In the same connection the Committee would call the 

190 



attention of the convention to the fact that the year 1904 
will be the Jubilee year of the convention itself, for the 
first convention of the Young Men's Christian Associa- 
tions of the United States and British Provinces assem- 
bled in Buffalo, June 7-8, 1854. If it is deemed desirable 
to hold an international convention in that Jubilee year, 
this could be accomplished by making the interval 
between the next, or thirty-fourth convention, and its 
successor three years. 

Date of the Day of Prayer. 

The Mobile convention instructed your Committee to 
ascertain the opinion of the American associations as 
to any change in the date of the observance of the day 
and week of prayer for young men, and if a majority of 
the responses should favor a change to memorialize the 
World's Central International Committee on the subject. 
Such expression of opinion was accordingly secured in 
the fall of 1897. Nearly three-fifths of the four hundred 
and sixty-eight associations that replied desired no 
change, and the others favored various months in the 
year — every month, in fact, except July and August. 
This discussion concerning a change of date was 
brought to the attention of the World's Conference at 
Basle, in July, 1898. After due consideration that con- 
ference voted to continue to recommend the November 
week heretofore observed. 

Further Recommendations. 

The Committee respectfully submits the following 
recommendations : 

1. The continuance of the work throughout North 
America upon the lines already reported, including : 

(a) Aid to associations in towns and cities, especially 
where they are as yet feeble or but poorly organized, 
including and emphasizing special attention to state and 
provincial organizations. 

191 



(b) The work of the resident secretaryship in vari- 
ous sections of the continent, with vigilant attention to 
the occasional transfer of the resident secretaries. 

(c) Work among young men. a. In university, 
college and school, b. In railroad service, c. Of the 
colored race. d. Of the Indian race. e. In the army 
and navy, providing the means necessary for its prose- 
cution can be secured, also work among English speak- 
ing and native young men in Porto Rico, Cuba and the 
Philippines, as the way may open and the necessary men 
and means may be provided. 

(d) The secretarial department. 

(e) The educational department. 
(/) The physical department, 
(g) The publication department. 

(h) Representation at state, provincial and other 
association conventions. 

(i) The historical library. 

(/) The work at the central office, as vitally related 
to the efficiency of every department, and including cor- 
respondence and the preparation, sale and distribution 
of circulars and pamphlets, books, badges, etc. 

2. Continuance of the fund annually placed at the 
disposal of the Committee to the amount of at least 
$135,000, provided that sum can be obtained, for the 
prosecution of the work. 

3. Increase of the permanent fund so that the rev- 
enue from it may contribute more materially to the 
support and extension of the work. 

4. The usual observance of the second Lord's Day in 
November and the week following as a season of prayer 
for the blessing of God upon work for young men in 
this and other lands. 

5. Support and supervision of the secretaries who 
represent, under the instructions of this convention, the 
American associations in definite association work upon 
the foreign field, provided contributions equal to their 
salaries and expenses shall be secured; this department 

192 



of the work to be conducted as heretofore upon the 
basis laid down by previous conventions. 

"Men." 

The paper of the associations, Men, under the man- 
agement of the Young Men's Era Company and the 
editorship of Frank W. Ober, has continued to com- 
mand the confidence and good opinion of the associa- 
tions. Last autumn it seemed best to begin its pub- 
lication as a monthly magazine, and the change has met 
with general favor. 

Acting in line with the hearty approval of the Mobile 
convention, the Committee has continued to give vig- 
orous support to the efforts of the friends of the paper 
in extending its circulation and in contributing to its 
columns. 

But the pecuniary response by the members of the 
brotherhood continues to fall short of the expenditure 
involved in the publication of the paper. This is deeply 
regretted, and those who have been most closely and 
practically concerned in promoting the welfare and use- 
fulness of the paper during the past twenty years, sug- 
gest that on the basis of past experience the paper 
should be published and prepared with principal aim to 
serve the officers and workers among the associations. 
Over thirty thousand young men are members of the 
various working committees. These with the secre- 
taries furnish a constituency for the paper, and about 
twenty associations have already agreed to make the 
paper a membership privilege for their working com- 
mittees. It is hoped that this good example may be 
generally followed, in which case there can be no doubt 
that the paper will secure the support which it merits 
and which the brotherhood is abundantly able to give. 

The Young Men's Era Company and the Chicago 
friends of the enterprise, who have for so many years, 
with patient enthusiasm and in spite of severe financial 

193 



loss, furnished this paper to the associations, have united 
in a proposition to lease the paper to the International 
Committee, with the understanding that it shall be pub- 
lished in Chicago, as heretofore; that the profits, if any, 
shall be divided equally during the period of the lease 
between the Era Company and the International Com- 
mittee ; and that this arrangement shall go into effect 
only provided a circulation among the association mem- 
bership amounting to 10,000 subscriptions, at fifty cents 
each, is pledged before or by the Grand Rapids con- 
vention. 

The Committee is willing to undertake this added 
responsibility, upon terms to be agreed upon with the 
Era Company, if the convention shall see fit to recom- 
mend it. 

The Training Schools and Training Conferences. 

The two training schools at Springfield, Mass., and at 
Chicago, have continued their valued service to the 
association cause, and a growing percentage of the 
employed officers of the associations has had the benefit 
of their instruction. Undoubtedly their influence in 
unifying the work and in elevating its standards has 
extended far beyond the circle of men that they have 
touched immediately. 

The Committee calls special attention to the confer- 
ences of lay workers, which are an integral part of the 
summer meetings at Lake Geneva, Asheville, and on 
the Pacific coast. Their value in the development of the 
lay leadership and control of the associations makes 
desirable every practicable effort to promote attendance 
at these conferences. 



194 



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